Another Destiny
by PingasMachine
Summary: Dr. Robotnik is a both a roboticist and a naturalist studying the unique wildlife on South island when his creations are stolen by an anthropomorphic hedgehog with intentions of conquering the Island for his own purposes. Now the doctor will have to stand up to the wrath of this new power-hungry speedster. Rewrite of the original Trilogy with Sonic and Eggman's roles reversed.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: A New Fate**

 **A/N: The title is probably terrible but ah well… If you have any ideas, let me know and I might change it to that.**

 **So, this was an idea that popped into my head following a day browsing the web. I have a feeling someone else has probably written about this before… but ah well. Anyway… I have nothing else to really say about this. Let's get going. R &R, plz**

For more than a year, Dr. Ivo Robotnik had observed South Island, documenting the wildlife an even some of the anthropomorphic animals that lived in the surrounding areas.

He was a tall enough man on his own, standing around six or so feet, however, he was easily the heaviest person you'd ever find in a room. He fat, quite simply. It curved around his midsection so perfectly; you'd swear he was a talking beach ball with arms and legs. His only other defining features were his bald head, which was made up for with his ginormous moustache.

Robotnik was both a roboticist (As many might guess from his name) and a naturalist. Most of his family before him had been scientists, but most of them put very little regard into the environment around them. Ivo, however, being a roboticist, often found it interesting to observe animals to see how they overcame problems that puzzled him and likeminded individuals.

Today was no different, except today he was feeling more lazy than usual, so had only travelled a short distance to his observation point today. Robotnik lived on the outskirts of the Green Hills, and today he had merely gone to the center of the hills for today's observations. That, of course, meant he could actually return home several times in the day. His house was only a fifteen minute or so walk away, and even less if he ran.

But that was hardly the point. Something was erking the doctor today.

 _Something isn't right._ He thought to himself while he sat in some bushes with a pair of binoculars.

Sure, there were the usual rabbits and birds and so on, but there was something else. He resolved to go back home to check his notes for previous observations on the Green Hills. He pulled out his trusty notepad and began transcribing the numbers of animals he could see from the bush.

Twelve rabbits,

 _Normal_ , He thought.

Twenty four birds,

 _Give or take, that's usually the average_ , I think.

Seven anthromorphs,

 _Hold up, what?_ He jerked slightly in the bush.

He checked again. Yes, he was right. He knew that's the anthromorphs were intelligent and did exist in large numbers, but that was generally in their more populated areas such West Island and a few inland places. It was strange to see so many here. South island had a few residents, yes, but most of the Ivo knew personally. He didn't recognise any of these guys.

They were all dressed in dark, or at least had some form of dark fur or scales. Each of them were tall for their kind, and wielded weapons upon closer inspection. They all looked like thugs.

 _Why are they even here? If they want to be terrorising people, why aren't they on West Island or something?_

And then something blue appeared behind them. Ivo frowned and focused his binoculars upon it. It looked familiar. He paused for a second to remember it.

 _No… It can't be…_ He could feel sweat start to drift down his face.

It was his motobug design. Except, fully realised, except in blue instead of his preferred red. How did anyone even get their hands on that plan? The only ones who knew it existed were him and a couple of GUN reps. There was no reason why a group of thugs should have it, considering he'd never built one, only planned them.

The thugs cornered a group of unsuspecting birds. Most of them realised their danger in time, but one of them was caught by the leg and hauled down by a large wolf. He walked over to the motobug and pressed a button on it's back. A hatch opened, revealing a some form of mechanism inside it.

With chills beginning to run down his spine, the doctor recognised it. It was the animal powered engine his parents had designed years ago. Gun had dismissed it for "having the potential to regrade relations between the anthromorphs and humans". And they were right to do so. The engines worked by using the energy of the animal inside to power the machine. In Ivo's opinion, it was barbaric. His mother and father had dropped it after GUN had refused to fund it, and most of the plans had been destroyed over time. All except the one residing in Ivo's house, on the edge of the Green Hills.

Obviously someone had gotten ahold of the plan and had the thought to implement it as an power source. Ivo growled in disgust. He felt he should get home and get to the bottom of this. So he gathered up his equipment and quickly headed home, taking care not to attract the attention of the anthropomorphic thugs. He was walking for five minutes before he realised something was really, really wrong.

Two long, thin, trails dashed across the hills , leading in the direction of his house.

 _Not good._ He thought.

He quickened his pace and soon came into sight of his home. His worst fears were confirmed. The trails led right up to the door, smashed open. He stepped across the splintered wood cautiously, in the event there was still someone here.

"Hello?" He called.

Silence.

He advanced down the main hallway, which took a right towards a corridor to his lab. The shelves along the corridor were strewn and smashed aside. The door to the lab has forced open, and still hung open. Ivo picked up one of the shelves, with intentions of using it as a club if needs be.

He advanced slowly before finally bursting into the room, plank raised. There was no one there. Ivo, feeling slightly foolishly standing just beyond the door holding a stick overhead, lowered it and examined the lab, flicking on the lights. His papers were strewn about carelessly, and a collection of them, Ivo realised, were missing.

Gathering as many as he could, he mentally catalogued the list. What was missing were the ones involving armed and weaponised robots. And, most frightening of all, his builder-bots.

These robots were designed to build any plans you fed to them, so long as they had access to the required raw materials. Ivo surveyed his lab, hoping that…

No. His working builder-bots were also gone.

"No." He whispered aloud.

This had to be some kind of bad dream; This couldn't be happening; All his war bots plans were stolen, along with his builder bot plans, and now someone was even using animals to power them.

He paused, inspecting the pages again. Interesting. The page for the ring engine he'd designed was still there, but the animal engine was gone. Why would some one take the animal engines and not the ring one?

The answer hit him after a second; someone would notice large amounts of rings being stolen; whereas animals? Nah. The humans wouldn't care enough, and by the time the antromorphs noticed… It would be too late.

It had to be a nightmare of somekind, this couldn't actually be happening. Ivo pulled up his sleeve and pinched himself. Twice, just to be sure.

He didn't wake up.

This was serious, he realised. Someone with no regard for animal life was plotting to use an army of robots to take over South Island.

 _But what would someone even gain from that?_ He thought.

The only advantages of South Island was it was relatively uninhabited, and of course, the abundance of the power rings on the island. The only other thing Ivo could think of was the legend of the Chaos emeralds located across the island.

Mere rumors, but all the same, no one had gone out and searched for them for any length of time; They'd just checked the some likely places and called it a day. Ivo turned and searched the lab for his phone; He needed to contact GUN about this. The sooner they got boots on the ground, the likelier that this invasion could be averted.

But the transmitter that Ivo had had been destroyed. He could rebuild it, but it would take him a week. Not good.

What did he have. Nothing except a few broken housekeeper bots and a collection of parts and retired projects.

Whoever had started this had obviously expected the doctor to call for help.

 _But…_ Ivo suddenly had a new idea.

He searched the lab and came across what he was looking for. His camping gear, and more importantly, his old power gauntlets.

He'd used the gauntlets to bend and break stubborn metal back when he didn't have his builder bots. The bots could easily exert twice the pressure of the gauntlets, which was why he retired them. But all the same, he could still bend metal with them, meaning he could still use them to damage the robots now rampaging the island, and beat up those thugs too.

He doubted they expected him to fight back. Who would? Who would expect a fat scientist to fight back?

But he would. He would because he could. They wouldn't expect it. That was what his parents had always said to him; Be unpredictable. He checked the backpack for supplies.

Some MREs, a sleeping bag, change of underwear (XXXL) and even a comb (Very important to keep his moustache in prime condition).

He pulled it on over his round back and pulled on the gauntlets. He was pumped. Something about the idea of fighting for control of this island was so attractive to him. He smiled to himself and hummed as he walked out of his house.

As soon as he set foot outside the ruined door, he was bombarded by other, less appealing thoughts.

 _What about the ranged bots?_

 _What if he hurt the animals inside the robots he destroyed?_

 _Why do I think I can do this?_

He swallowed, standing in the light wind, just at the border of the Green Hills.

"Oh, Ivo." An old female voice said. "Thank goodness you're all right!"

He turned. It was Mrs. Allen, an anthropomorphic resident of the island. She was an old raccoon that must have been in her nineties.

"What happened?" He asked.

"A band of robots and thugs came down and kidnapped Charlie and Bessie. I saw the whole thing." She sighed sadly. "I don't know where they're taking them. Where are you going?"

"Some… guy or something just stole a load of my plans and bots. I'm going to stop him." He replied.

She looked up at him, concern written upon her face.

"Are you sure about this, dear?"

"Very. They're my robots. Therefore, they are MY responsibility."

"Well, good luck then, dear." She whispered. "And be careful."

"I will." He replied, and before he could change his mind, set off across the Green Hills.

Mrs. Allen watched him with concern from the distance.

 **Well, that's the first chapter. What did ya'll think of that? R &R please.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: The Green Hills**

 **A/N: I… uh… got nothing. R &R!**

Ivo saw little at first as he walked through the green hills. However, after ten minutes or so of walking, he came across a small cluster of animals fleeing.

The animals didn't know him very well, but eveidenly they trusted enough to the point where they skirted around him closely, rather than giving him a wide birth.

At the crest of the hill they were on, he spotted two forms rising. He couldn't recognise them at this distance, so he planted his feet and straightened into a proper combat position.

He quite soon detected a noise. The sound of a motobug's tyre as it approached. The one beside was more thinner. It had to be one of thugs he'd spotted earlier.

Most of the animals fled as they reached the crest too. The blue motobug and the grey wolf stopped a few feet away from him.

"Well, well!" The wolf laughed, pointing his spear at the scientist. "What have we here?"

"I am Dr. Ivo Robotnik." He replied calmly.

His eyes would have told a different story if the wolf had been able to see them behind the doctor's glasses.

"So you're that scientist the bosshog was talkin' about, eh?" The wolf queried.

"Bosshog?" Ivo questioned.

"Need none of your concern. Just turn tail and I'll forget I even seen you, I'm so nice."

The doctor frowned and his eyebrow creased.

"No. I won't let anyone use my robots and that engine for their own purposes." He growled back.

"Them's fightin' words, Doc. You sure you wanna?"

Last chance to back down.

But he wouldn't. To do so would be to forfeit everything he held dear and to disgrace his lineage. He may not care much about his lineage, but having some "bosshog" guy get the better of him, and in effect his family, seemed too insulted.

"I am."

The wolf's eyes widened, surprised.

"I ah... Never heard someone be so literal 'bout dere intentions." He explained.

"First for everything." The doctor smiled slightly, though he was sure the wolf missed it.

Said wolf, having recovered from his shock, ordered the motobug forward. It's main wheel spun up, and the creature cruised forwards.

Knowing he couldn't hit it from the top, lest he risk crushing the animal inside. The robot rumbled forward, forward mandibles snapping vigorously. Ivo made up his mind on his plan of attack. Sweeping low, the doctor hooked the robot, sending it spinning across the hillside.

Evidently, his gauntlets had made some impact on the robot, as it began giving emergency beeping noises, and the rear hatch ejected as the motobug fell apart from damage.

The bird that had been trapped inside the robot fluttered free as the rear section of the engine was ejected. A second later, the chassis exploded.

The wolf covered his eyes, but Ivo's glasses protected his own eyes. He turned back to the wolf. The thug looked up at him, now concerned about the possibility of fighting him, realising that the fat man was actually capable of putting up a fight.

The wolf put two and two together, and fled down the hill, into the center of the Green Hills.

Ivo followed slowly behind, taking his time to collect several power rings as he advanced. He knew the rings had extraordinary properties; such as the ability to protect their wielded from an amount of damage. Who knew when those could come in useful.

He was also going slow for another reason. The Green Hills were know having an assortment of dangerous objects, such a the more harmless twirling poles, to the helpful; (mainly being the golden rings seemingly scattered at random throughout the island) all the way up to the dangerous; being the spikes and random springs scattered throughout the hills.

No one had any idea who put them there in the first place, or of they were natural creations.

The doctor picked up speed as he plunged down into the hills. A handful of blue robots of this design were scattered ahead. Mostly motobugs, with a few of the wasplike buzzbomber design hovering above too.

Ivo followed a narrow elevated path down the hill, taking the opportunity to snag a few of the power rings. Never knew when a bit of invulnerability to damage would come in handy.

The slope of the hill ended out by widening into a flat plain; of which the robots were patrolling. Ivo slid onto the grass there and Immediately raised his arms into a fighting stance.

The wolf that had fled this way was nowhere to be seen; he'd either not taken this path or had ran staging through it.

None of the robots seemed to pay him any attention at first, continuing their patrol paths. Why would they, anyway, who expected a man his size to put up any fight whatsoever? But he could; his gauntlets gave his arms additional strength, he had several power rings and last but not least, he could actually move quickly despite his weight. This made his legs more powerful than one might think.

But all the same, he was not one to trust his natural abilities. Robots were always as exact as they were told to be, no more, no less. He rarely prefered to use his unreliable natural abilities: until now.

"Hello?" Ivo asked, puzzled by their behaviour.

None of them even appeared to care about him. He frowned and then waved at them, hoping to get some kind of reaction from them. Finally, he did.

"Unidentified human." One of the buzzbombers called out. "Immediately leave this area or be destroyed. You have five seconds to abide this warning."

"Who is your creator?" Ivo asked regardless.

"The name of the master is-" the machine began, and then dropped into a lower voice. "[REDACTED]"

The doctor sighed, disappointed with the answer.

"You have persisted more than five seconds. You will be destroyed."

Ivo sprung into action before they finished. As every bot in the vicinity sprung into action, he landed a gauntlet right in the face of a motobug.

The robot hissed, and it's back exploded apart, releasing a little pig inside. The creature scurried away from the brawl immediately.

Ivo swung his other hand across and hit another motobug's mandibles, sending the robot spinning backwards. Several buzzbombers overhead lined up and fired. One shot smashed into the doctor's chest. Several rings exploded from the point of impact, but the doctor took advantage of the force of the impact, rolling backwards and clearing some distance between him and the bots.

He felt something strike his leg, but the residue left by the ring protected him from the damage. He turned to see a motobug with dented mandibles backing away slowly from the doctor, it's attack having failed.

Ivo raised his foot and stamped hard on the robot's face. With a crack, he smashed several forward facing systems and knocked the left mandible clean off.

The robot ejected its power source and crumbled to pieces. There were three buzzbombers and four motobugs left facing off against the doctor now. He watched them warily.

They seemed to be doing the same. For a few seconds, a standoff of sorts occurred. Neither side wished to be first to attack. However, a motobug quickly grew tired and accelerated forward, mandibles snapping in the wind. At the last second it launched itself from its wheel and accelerated through the air towards the doctor's face.

Ivo immediately seized it by each mandible with one hand. The gauntlets strained to hold the mandibles in position as the motobug was suspended a few inches from the face of the doctor.

A new idea struck the genius, and he began to spin on the spot for a few seconds, confusing the robots watching, until...

Ivo released. The motobug spun through the air before smashing headfirst into the middle buzzbomber. The stricken robot spun wildly in midair, catching a second buzzbomber and pulling it down to the earth with it.

The few remaining bots spun, fixing their optics on the falling bots. This gave Ivo time to turn and jump of the platform. He hit the ground and rolled.

He could have fought on, but he didn't want to press his luck this early on in his adventure. He inspected his gauntlets for damage, finding that they had been a little dented by the beatings they'd been giving out.

The doctor frowned, concerned by their visibly poor durability. He'd need to get a more reliable weapon to fight the bots with.

He headed into a large set of bushes along the hillside extending down the platform he'd just fallen from. The buzzbomber remaining surveyed the area, but failed to notice the doctor.

Evidently not equipped with heat vision. Good to know.

The doctor watched the robot fly off. Then he turned and continued down the bushes. He spotted a few robots as he did, but he didn't want to engage.

He'd been way to agressive in his own opinion; he wanted to keep his threat level as low as possible. Whoever was running these bots now knew that there was someone living on South Island who was willing to fight.

Ivo continued on for several minutes, before eventually hearing voices. He approached as closely as the bushes would allow.

He caught sight of a clearing. Several residents of the island were tied up and kneeling down. The entire group of thugs were also in the clearing, along with several robots, mostly buzzbombers and motobugs.

Suddenly, the wolf that the doctor had encountered earlier burst into the clearing, panting heavily. The doctor had beaten him here? Interesting. The Green hills were sometimes a perfect maze.

"Jim, why the hell have you come back empty handed?!" One of the thugs, a gorilla, shouted upon seeing his companion.

"I- *pant* Doctor- *wheeze* ambush- *pant* fought-" the wolf attempted to explain, but kept on tripping over his words.

"Heaven's sake. You had one job. Round up some animals to power these bots. You even had a single bot with you! Where is that guy now, anyway?" The gorilla continued.

Eggman surveyed the bots waiting to the left. They were all still, unpowered. Good. The invasion of the Green Hills wasn't a victorious cause yet. He had to ensure it never was. He continued to watch.

"It was- *gasp* destoyed." Jim explained, catching his breath.

"What?" Another thug blurted out.

"Someone's fighting back?" The gorilla said more quietly.

"There's only five people on the island we haven't captured yet." An aardvark growled. "That old one closeby, that obese scientist and that couple and their child down at the coast."

"The doctor." The wolf said.

The prisoners began to quietly murmur.

"What?" The gorilla sounded incredulous. "How the hell is that fat lump a threat? Did he try to crush you?"

The group burst into laughter while the wolf backed away, ridiculed. After a few seconds, the leader regained his composure.

"You all!" The gorilla snarled. "Shut it!"

The prisoner's chattering quietened to a whisper, but that wasn't enough for the gorilla.

"Daikon!" He snarled. "Make them shut it."

One of the thugs, a large lizard, drew a knife and advanced upon the prisoners. They grew quiet as he pressed the knife against the throat of one of them; a female cat. She whimpered as he laughed slightly.

Ivo snarled from behind the bush, on the verge of jumping out and attacking. Unfortunately, him startling the lizard could cause him to jump; and that jump could cause his knife to cut.

The scientist bit his time quietly, waiting for his moment.

"Right now!" The gorilla roared. "If there is any resistance, no one tells anything of it to the Hedgeboss, understand?"

The Hedgeboss? Interesting. Ivo couldn't recall any hedgehogs living on the island, so he either was a mainlander or came from another island. A completely unknown face.

The band of thugs nodded. The lizard stood up and began to circle the band of prisoners. Now was his chance. Ivo pushed his way out of the bushes and entered the clearing.

Silence fell, which he filled by extending his fingers. The sound of the gauntlet's motors filled the air. He slowly clenched his hands into fists again.

"Well dang." The gorilla muttered. "You were right, Jim."

"I suppose he was." Ivo stated, slowly beginning to circle the band of thugs.

The lizard retreated back to his group. Ivo slowly moved between them and the prisoners. Silence continued. The bots remained powerless, dead.

The odds may have been stacked against the doctor, but they weren't that far; he could succeed here, but he was hoping that...

"Come on!" The gorilla angrily screamed. "Attack!"

Ah well. No chance of them just running off now.

The group drew their own weapons, spears, knives, clubs, but no ranged weapons.

It was sobering to thing that this Hedgeboss had single-handedly managed to take most of South Island with only a single band of ill-equipped thugs.

The gorilla surged forward first. He wielded a long spear, and drawing himself up to his full height, around five feet, making him tall for an anthro.

The doctor had a plan. That plan required patience. He waited as his first enemy advanced.

The gorilla seemed surprised that the doctor was just waiting for him, and slowed slightly, uncertain. Most of his enemies tended to back up or run as he approached.

He entered range, and thrust.

The doctor raised his left hand and intercepted the spear. The wood with a metal point met the high quality metal gauntlets, and the point was ripped from the shaft.

The gorilla stared in shock, and the doctor struck. He grabbed the shaft with his right hand, immediately tearing it from the gorilla's grip, pulling it back, and... Smash. He brought the stick straight up, hitting the gorilla straight in the chin.

The gorilla staggered backwards and collapsed, stunned. Ivo discarded the broken stick and faced the rest of the thugs. With luck, they would run off now that their leader was defeated.

Around Half did, scattering as they fled back into the Green Hills. The other half however, angry that their leader had been taken down, charged as one. Ivo's eyes widened behind his goggles. He knew he couldn't take down a mob of angry anthros, even with his gauntlets, with killing any of them.

That was not something he wanted to do, and his mind raced to come up with a solution. About a second later, he hit one. He waited until they almost on him, and then sidestepped.

They turned, only to find a cheetah standing in their way. Ivo's dodge had been to such a point that the cheetah was now in front of more than half of them.

The doctor launched his attack immediately afterwards. He rushed forward, swiping the first two thugs out of the way, and then using his overlarge body to bowl through the group of surprised thugs. With almost all of them on the ground, he grabbed the nearest one, the lizard, by a leg, and spun around several times, before releasing.

He flew into the bushes and landed roughly out of sight. A few thugs climbed to their feet, most disarmed, but a duck with a baseball bat charged forward. He pulled back, and Ivo did nothing except wait.

The duck swung, but Ivo reached out and caught it easily with a gauntlet. He pulled right out of the ducks hand, leaving him stunned, and tore it apart with his other hand.

The duck backed up and ran. Most of the thugs remaining did the same. Meanwhile, though, one of them climbed to his feet quietly and drew a knife. Ivo didn't hear anything, but slowly turned back to see the final thug ready to stab. He panicked and immediately lunged when the doctor turned.

Ivo immediately brought a hand to his chest in the place that the stab would strike. There was a crunching sound as the cheap metal/plastic combo of the knife met the gauntlet's high quality casing.

Ivo heard the captives gasp from behind him. The thug looked up, grinning slightly, only to realise that he stab had no impression on the doctor. Ivo slapped him openhanded. The final thug was thrown backwards and landed hard on the ground. He blinked twice, before sighing and blacking out.

The scientist might have broken his jaw, but he hadn't killed him. He surveyed the nearby area. The only ones he could see in the immediate area were the captives and the deactivated robots of his. He frowned.

"If any of you thugs are still around here, back off, and I won't be after you when this is over. Leave this island and let these people be." He warned loudly.

He paused to hear two pairs of footsteps scamper of into the distance of the bushes and trees of the Hills.

He turned back to the captives and walked forward. He knelt down next to the nearest captive. As far as he could remember, this was a squirrel named Charlie. He leaned over and cut the ropes binding him, and then handed him the knife.

"Free the others and get them to safety." He ordered. "Get them off the island if you have to."

Charlie nodded.

"What about you?" A cow, Bessie, asked.

"I intend to stop whoever's behind this." Ivo said, standing up. "Good luck."

He turned and slung his bag back over his shoulder.

"Wait!" Bessie called out. "What are you going to do?"

"This guy, whomever he or she is, is using my robots for his plans. I can't allow that. I must do this."

"Thank you." Charlie said. "Farewell."

Ivo turned back for a second.

"Let's hope this isn't a final farewell then."

Charlie nodded.

Ivo quickened his pace and jogged down another narrow pathway that was held above the hills. For several minutes, it was mostly quiet. He continued and occasionally came across the scattered thugs, which he promptly knocked out.

He also encountered robots, though far less than he was expecting. After several hours going through the hills, he had encountered a few capsules containing animals (Which disgusted him, quite frankly) and was just finishing climbing through another of those long, narrow tunnels that seemed to be drilled across the hills.

 _I really need to lose some weight._ The doctor thought as he just managed to free himself from getting stuck in the tunnel. The end was finally in sight.

He sighed in relief and grabbed the edge, hoisting himself onto another hillside plain. A low hill overhung his left. It was dark enough, as the sun was just beginning to set over the zone, and was on the verge of crossing behind the hill.

It would soon be time for the doctor to stop for the night. He frowned. It usually took him less than two hours to walk through the Green Hills, although it had to be considered that he had taken a very long route in order to find as many animals and destroy as many animals as he could.

As he moved to cross out of the shadow, he suddenly noticed that a patch of shadow had appeared. He frowned and looked back up to the top of the hill. Unfortunately, this was right into the sun.

He raised an arm to cover his eyes, and set his googles to high flare mode. He looked back up to see a dark shape standing at the top of the hill. It was an anthro, no doubt, but the anti-glare filter made it impossible to pick out any real details.

"So!" A voice cried out.

Ivo paused. This sounded like a much lighter and in many cases younger voive than he'd been expecting.

"You've been the one whose been beating up my goon and breaking my robots, eh?

"You're the Hedgeboss, aren't you?" Ivo replied cooly.

"I prefer the name Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog." The Hedgeboss jumped down of the hillside and landed flawlessly in the shadows. Ivo quickly disabled his glare filter.

This hedgehog was not what he was expecting. He want brown and grey, but instead dark blue, with piercing green eyes. He walked with a quick confidence in his stride. His smile was unnerving too.

Him and the doctor circled each other for a brief second.

"You broke into my lab." Ivo accused.

"I did, didn't I? Too bad for you, very good for me!" The Hedgehog laughed.

Everything about this hedgehog annoyed Ivo, down to his smile to his overconfident voice.

"Do you have any idea what you've started?!" The doctor growled.

The hedgehog disappeared in a streak of light and reappeared beside the doctor. Ivo jumped and stepped back.

What the- He's fast.

"Oh, I do. My world domination, don't you see? And shouldn't you, you're meant to be the smart one right doc? My goons, theyre great and all, but they couldn't subdue a town, let alone the world." The Hedgehog taunted from the rock.

Ivo raised his hands in case the hedgehog struck.

"I cannot let you continue to use my technology; My family's technology in such a barbaric way!"

"Didn't your parents first make that engine in the first place, who's the real monsters here, doc? You or your family?"

"They never mass produced the engine like you!" Ivo rebutted. "You've already harmed more animals than they ever did!"

The hedgehog laughed his annoying laugh.

"I want to rule this world, doctor. Not everyone is born with abilities, doctor. But I wa, and I intend to use my abilities! I am the fastest thing alive, am I not? Do I not deserve that?"

"A childish dream, no? You should know, that no dictator throughout history has ever conquered more than a single continent. You can try, but even with your speed and robots, someone will always resist. History has taught us that." The doctor replied.

"That's where you are wrong, doctor." Sonic replied, his grin widening. "I will have something no other dictator had; The Chaos Emeralds!"

"And you're childish enough to believe in such myths?" Ivo raised an eyebrow as he rebutted.

Another laugh from the Blue Blur;

"Make no mistake, my friend, Those emeralds are as real as you or I."

"Then why has no one found them yet?" The doctor grinned in response, feeling his argument the stronger.

"They're in a different dimension, of course." The hedgehog said this like it was common knowledge.

It was Ivo's turn to laugh.

"Come on, even if they were, how would you get them?"

"My superspeed, do you not see, it's part of my Chaos affinity. That affinity, the myths say, will allow me to claim them for my own." The hedgehog explained, sighing as though he had come to a long, hard decision all of a sudden. "Pity you won't get to see it."

He charged, jumping through the air and curling into a ball. Ivo moved faster than he ever had before, raising his fist in response and parried the attack away. The blue ball hit the ground and executed a small u-turn and sprung back at him.

He blocked again and again, the standoff holding for several seconds before Ivo counterattacked, hitting the hedgehog with an uppercut with his free hand.

A handful of golden rings exploded from the hedgehog and he was thrown back. He hit the ground and rolled backwards to stand upright, blinking as the temporal invulnerability the rings left faded.

 _He uses rings too?_

Sonic was proving more and more dangerous by the second.

"You're fast." Sonic replied, sounding impressed. "But are fast enough?"

He sped forward, attempting to circle the doctor. Seeing this coming, the doctor lunged forward and intercepted the hedgehog with a gauntlet to the face. The gauntlet dented slightly and sent a pain through Ivo's arm, but a volley of rings exploded from the hedgehog (Rings are going to not all explode out at once in this universe, but out in amounts relative to the damage done, K?)

The blue blur hit the dirt and rolled backwards again. He stood up and locked eyes with the scientist.

"This isn't over, buttnik."

Ivo sighed internally at the childish insult.

"If I can't beat you head to head, I'll just have to crush you with your own bots then. Next time though, I won't be holding back anything. You won't stand a chance."

"Don't worry." Ivo said coolly. "I won't hold back either."

The hedgehog disappeared with a whoosh and bang. Ivo watched the blur retreat from the hills. He'd won this battle but while Sonic was still at large, he would have to keep fighting.

A short distance away, he spotted a signpost of his own invention; They displayed a picture of the last person they'd captured. Of course, It was Sonic. The blue twerp must have been using these signs to point out his territory.

Ivo chuckled slightly at the picture, which was the hedgehog giving a friendly thumbs up, like the "good natured" soul he was.

Then the doctor reset the image and took one of himself. Vain, sure, but a pointer to let Sonic know that he now had freed this area. He spun the sign once to refresh it. Satisfied, he walked on.

The time at the Green Hills was nearly over, but the battle for South Island was not.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Marble Fields.**

 **A/N: So I'm just going to start with saying that I'm going to be taking some creative liberties in several zones, As just for the instance of this story for one; Sonic only just got the robots; And while his attack was fast, he hasn't had time to build up some infrastructure to the scale Robotnik had done in STH1, and he's for the moment only operating on Ivo's blueprints. (That will change as it goes on, but for now, that means that some zones will be different to their game portrayals,)**

 **Around STH2 is when things I'll start bringing the zones closer to the games, but I'll still take some liberties there, just to make things interesting.**

 **Also, thanks to karygarcia21 for commenting, and well… uh… I got nothing else…**

 **Anyway, R &R!**

Ivo made his first camp at the edge of the Marble Zone. He didn't feel the need to pursue the hedgehog into the area immediately, anyway. The zone was practically a few ancient buildings drifting atop a huge volcanic crater. The doctor wanted to be as prepared as possible before going in.

Who would expect anyone, especially one of his IQ, to enter such a treacherous territory? The whole place was practically a mess of floating platforms across a lava field.

Sonic had only just made his move; He had more important places to defend against possible resistance than this area. Which meant that there would be nowhere near as much robots set up for defence.

This gave the doctor more time for a break. One of which he dearly needed.

The gauntlets were losing their touch. Designed for bending metal and breaking it ocassioanlly, they were not taking smashing robots apart very well. He needed a new weapon.

Setting up a makeshift workshop, he sighed and tapped the portable forge he'd build out of the chassis of a motobug he'd broken. The very design of the Gauntlets was flawed; To the point where it wasn't worth upgrading them, they'd always be flimsy.

He needed a new weapon. He didn't have time to huild a all-new battlesuit or anything of that calibre; All the same, he need a durable weapon. Perhaps something that primarily relied on his natural abilities would be faster and more effienct…

What could he do; He was smart, but that wasn't really as applicable as one might think in this situation if he couldn't hurt the bots in the first place. That left his reaction times and his weight. Something he preferred to leave to robots, and something that he couldn't see helping.

After all, what could he do, crush the bots beneath him?

Wait a second; something sparking in his head; an idea.

He reached for a pair of springs from the motobug lying beside him and went to work. Around an hour later, he had his results. A pair of spring propelled mechanised legs that could take a drop from several meters without injuring him and he could use to launch himself to new heights.

He grinned. This would not only give him a new weapon, but a mobility enhancer to get through the marble fields with.

He started off. It was just a few hours until the sun went down. The sun hadn't gone to the point where it was orange yet, but it was on the edge. The doctor attached the legs to himself. He tested them, and was launched about ten meters into the air.

He also landed without injury, and the legs launched him about a meter after landing aswell. This would allow him to clear any bots he broke upon landing. Perfect.

He packed up and set off. The start off was easy; Little resistance, and he even had come across a lined up set of platforms. He sprung across them easily, encountering no resistance, until he came across a robotic caterpillar, (He couldn't remember the name of the model; It must have been an old design) which he landed atop, breaking it apart upon impact.

Easy enough. Across another collection of floating platfroms until he reached a larger platform, with a huge cliff in the middle. Right before the cliff, there lay a hole. Ivo couldn't find a way around the cliff face, so Ivo dropped into the hole. He landed and surveyed the area around him. He was in a brick hallway.

The doctor paused. The tunnel wasn't swaying in the way the platforms above had been. That meant that this structure was built into the ground. Interesting; And fortunate.

That would make the navigation easier. Ivo wandered through a collection of tunnels, crossing occasional obstacles that appeared. A collection of platforms hovered above some lava. Ivo jumped across them, pushed blocks onto buttons, crossed the lava lakes in various ways, and eventually made his way back to the surface.

Ivo didn't enjoy it down there; the structure was extremely hot, and it was difficult to keep the springs working as intended down there.

"Dang…" The doctor hissed as he pulled himself out. "Maybe I should have gone around this place…"

He sighed and checked the mechanised legs, and after a few minutes, he felt they weren't going to shatter at any moment, and he carried on. After a few minutes he encountered another motobug, which he leapt on, breaking it apart and releasing the animal inside.

It was a small rabbit, which quickly bounded a short distance before stopping as it realised it was surrounded by lava. It looked back at the doctor helplessly. Ivo stopped and looked back at it.

He realised his mistake; The rabbit couldn't possibly leave here safely, and they both knew it. He picked up the rabbit and placed it in his breast pocket. Fortunately, the other caterpillar had released a bird, so he wouldn't have to go back, only carry this rabbit through the zone.

He was unfortunately now faced with a dilemma as he spotted another bot patrolling across the lava on another platform. If he freed the animal inside, he might have to carry it across the Marble fields too, and he could only do that with so many animals.

He sighed, and avoided the bot. When he was done with Sonic, he would take the robots to a safe area and deactivate them. Sad, yes, but necessary.

"So, little guy… or girl… I can't tell… What shall I call you?" He asked, as he climbed over another set of platforms.

The rabbit looked up at him.

"Jim?"

He swore the rabbit shook its head, though it may have been because he jumped atop another platform.

"Ok, maybe not. Carrol?"

The rabbit exhaled in a way that seemed like a sigh.

"That's a no."

Ivo looked up to grasp a streak of rings.

"How about Rufus."

The rabbit, having grown tired of Ivo's attempts, looked away and curled up in Ivo's pocket.

"Rufus it is."

Another hole appeared in the platform before him. Ivo sighed, searching around for another way around, and finding nothing, he reluctantly went under again. The heat was immediate. Ivo wondered if whoever built this was aware of how warm it would get.

"Brace yourself, Rufus. Gonna get real hot down here."

Rufus looked up at him for a second.

They came across a platform, which hovered on a section of lava. Ivo frowned. AS soon as he stepped onto it, it started moving. A couple of platforms extended across just above the height of the platform they were on.

"Why does it even do that?" The doctor asked as he jumped over the first platform. "Who would even want something that would knock you off into lava?"

Rufus was uninterested by Ivo's outloud thoughts.

The doctor sighed. "I need someone to talk to while I'm doing this, eh?"

Rufus seemed to nod.

They reached the end of the Lava trip, and Ivo jumped off and carried on down the hallway, spinning around heading down another set of toasty, dark, corridors. The doctor wiped his forehead as they continued down the hallway.

Eventually, he came across a spring, which launched him up onto another level, which took him to an stairwell that opened out to the surface. The doctor raced up the stairs to enjoy the cooler air.

He looked around. The area around him had changed somewhat; Now in the distance rose a temple of some kind. Despite spending several years of his life surveying the island, Ivo had never noticed this temple before. It peaked his curiosity. What else about South Island did the world not know? Did a civilisation settle here prior to his arrival?

"So many questions, but so little time, eh, my friend?" The doctor asked.

Rufus seemed to nod. Ivo snorted slightly, looking up just in time to see a buzzbomber open fire at him. He jumped aside, narrowly avoiding falling off the platform.

"Damn it." He hissed.

The arial bot had a new advantage; it was unrestricted by the lava, and Ivo didn't want to break it open in the first place.

Seeming to know this, the bot launched an attack without mercy. The doctor used his springs to launch him off, evading a shot from the bomber and jumping across to another platform.

He surveyed the area around quickly, actually searching for a whole to take cover in. The buzzbomber locked on again and made a pass, firing several rounds as it passed. The doctor twisted, evading several of the shots, but still getting hit by a few, raining his rings to a quarter. The buzzbomber redirected itself to come around for another pass.

Ivo spotted another platform, which was much more elevated, and jumped. He narrowly grasped onto the edge of it, hanging above the lava. He heard the drone of the buzzbomber as it came about and locked on to him again.

Wishing he'd kept the gauntlets, the doctor hoisted himself up onto the platform as several shots destroyed the cliff face. Ivo sprinted off as fast as he could.

The buzzbomber seemed to be acting with intelligence the doctor hadn't anticipated. The colour scheme of it was more darker than the ones that the scientist had seen at the Green Hills.

It swept around again and fired another cluster of shots in a pass. Ivo, with more room to manoeuvre, jumped upwards and evaded the shots.

He rapidly surveyed his new are, checking for the hole that he wanted to hide under from this buzzbomber.

 _Nothing._

Things weren't looking good, there was a cluster of islands that he wasn't sure of, but if he could make it was questionable. But as the bomber made another assault, he saw no other option.

 _Now or Never._

The doctor glanced across, and took a run up and sprung towards the cluter. As he sailed through the air, he twisted to his left, extending his arm as far as it would go. But the lava closed in too fast, and he hit the burning ground.

He bounced. In one split second, the rings protecting his released, and a residue of energy formed around him, protecting him from harm, albeit briefly. The doctor, seeing his last chance, sprung forward once again, praying his springs wouldn't fail.

They fired. He sailed through the air and landed atop the middle, highest platform. The buzzbomber changed course, accelerating to full. Ivo c=glanced back, and then to his breast, where Rufus was still sitting, panicked, but unharmed.

"One final jump now, don't let us down, springs!" He roared, sighting a hole to an underground structure.

He ran forward and launched into the air. He sailed over as several buzzbomber rounds obliterated the platform on which he had been standing previously. The buzzbomber in question narrowly streamed by him.

He landed, rolled, and fell into the hole, just managing to land on his feet. The doctor released a sigh of relief, checking his furry companion to find him alright.

The buzzbomber above attempted to gain access to the hole, but it's size proved too large, and the bot hovered overhead, considering it's next move.

"Can't get us, eh?" Ivo taunted. "Run back to your 'Creator' and ask him what to do."

The buzzbomber didn't comply, instead opening fire on the platform above. Ivo snorted at its attempts, until a chip of rock broke free, revealing a faint trickle of lava, which began to steadily grow.

"No…"

That trickle began to increase to a flow.

"You're not…"

The doctor knew what the robot was up too immediately, and turned tail and ran down the dark corridors. Very soon the entrance would be obliterated and lava would stream into the corridors, frying anything inside it.

Ivo need to find the exit to the underground before it was too late. Fortunately, this time, the route proved easier to navigate, with just a few platforms over lava to jump across. But, as always, the route led to an double cross.

The doctor stared left and right. He had no idea which direction was to the surface. Choosing the wrong one would cost him dearly. He glanced left and right, unsure which to pick, while at the same time became very aware of the lava building up behind him.

"Any ideas?" He asked Rufus, panic beginning to seem into his voice.

Rufus seemed fixated on a path to the left. Ivo took it. The pathway took another left before approaching a stairs. The doctor ran up it, only to encounter a dead end.

"No!" He cried, running up to the wall, pressing various bricks in it, hoping for some kind of alternate route to be revealed. Nothing came up. He turned back only to see the lava lapping at the steps behind him.

Trapped.

He backed up to the center of the wall, hands still fumbling for buttons, when he felt something odd;

The ground compressed beneath him. He looked down, just as the spring beneath him fired. The doctor flew upwards through the air and smashed into the roof, which shattered as his back and body powered through them. Ivo hit the ground and rolled several times.

After hitting the ground, he pulled himself up and glanced back through the hole, watching as lava swelled up inside. He swallowed as the lava filled up the hole until there was nothing to be seen below. Having affirmed that Rufus was still alive at his pocket, Ivo stood up and looked around. Several smaller islands drifted across the lava nearby, which led to the end of the Marble zone.

The doctor searched around for a the buzzbomber, but failed to locate it. It must have wandered off after failing to find him, or at least assumed that he'd been killed by the lava.

"Well, well, well." A voice grunted. "Looks like he took the short way."

Ivo turned and looked up to see a blue vehicle drift down from above him. It looked familiar. It seemed like Sonic had recoloured the old hover mobile Ivo had though up a year ago.

"Seriously?" He asked. "You chose that off all things? How are you going to kill me with that? It's not even armed!"

Sonic laughed manically.

"I may not have an IQ of 300 doc, but even I know how attach weapons to this thing."

"Hmm. It is designed for my weight, so I suppose you could bolt a few things on."

Sonic leaned forward, a huge smile plastered across his face.

"I even built a weapon of my own!"

"Oh joy." Ivo muttered. "Let's see what this genius came up with."

The hedge made a big show of stretching his fingers, before pressing a button on the console of hovermobile. Two nozzles extended from the sides.

"And now!"

"Just get on with it." The doctor sighed.

Two jets of liquid squirted from the nozzles. Upon hitting the ground, they pooled until a trickle hit the lava. Then the whole puddle went up in a roar of fire.

Ivo lurched backwards as Sonic laughed manically. His weapon may have been simple, but still effective. He started up at the hovering vehicle, before his eyebrows creased.

"Let's go, then."

"All right!" Sonic yelled back, and he fired up the engines to the hovering vehicle and came about, separating from the doctor, getting some distance from him to fire again.

Ivo ran and sprang over to another of the small platforms. He landed without incident, but his landing caused a wake that began to move the islands slightly. Sonic whizzed forward to get into range again.

The scientist readied his mechanism to jump once again. As soon as the hedgehog came into range, he let loose, turning in mid-air and slamming both of his feet into the hovermobile. The mechanism heavily dented the vehicle, and the doctor sprang off, hit the ground once and rolled.

"GAH!" Sonic screamed as he struggled with the vehicle for a second, before regaining control and opened fire with both petrol cannons.

The doctor yelped and lept off the platform as it erupted into flames. The doctor was running out manoeuvring room quickly; Sonic was ruthlessly burning through the grass and pretty much whatever he could.

Ivo turned and prepared for another assault, only for Sonic to force him to back off with more squirts. But the mobile was struggling, and Sonic didn't have unlimited ammo. He had evidently realised that, as rapidly squirting had become slow, precise burst to ignite just the entire island.

Ivo's size and weight allowed him to do much more damage when he hit home. The mobile was suffering from a huge central dent from his first hit. Another two should finish Sonic, judging from the state of his vehicle.

Sonic swept in again, with a clean strike for his assault…

The doctor sprang off again. He hit like a beach ball against a faces, bouncing off it and almost missing a platform. This one was one of the last platforms around that had a burnable surface of grass which hadn't been consumed by the lava.

Sparking and failing occasionally, the hovermobile flew right over the doctor and aimed its nozzles straight down.

"Well, doc, it's been fun." Sonic chortled, and pressed a button.

Ivo climbed to his feet and jumped to the nearby island as petrol rained down on the island. He landed in the warm soot, turned back to fix his eyes on the Hedgehog.

"Oh, come on!" Sonic snarled upon realising he'd failed once again.

The doctor landed and sprang back towards the Hedgehog's vehicle and hit home, feet first. With a heavy clang, he hit home and flew back towards his origin. The vehicle's engine screamed in protest and several plats fell off. Smoke poured from the inside.

Sonic snarled, fighting to control the vehicle, raising it above the ground and out of the doctor's reach.

"You win this time! I wasn't ready for you, I wasn't expecting you to go this way, so that's why you're still alive. Mark my words, doctor; I'll get you NEXT time!" Sonic yelled, and powered away at whatever speed he could gather, and dissapered into the horizon.

Ivo watched him go. He looked down to see that Rufus had somehow, still survived without injury and looked mostly bored with the current situation.

"You're one tough bunny, eh?"

He managed to navigate his way back to the mainland, and let the rabbit off. Rufus immediately scarpered off into the nearby bushes.

"Seeya, my friend." Ivo smiled slightly as he watched the rabbit disappeared.

He really need someone to talk to.

"Hah, the dreams of a senile old man." He laughed.

He began to head on. After a while, he crested a nearby hill and sat down after a while to set down and examine the springs to his mechanised legs. They were a bit melted, but still functional.

He looked back down to the Marble fields below. He spotted a few a bots wandering amongst the fields. He lowered his head. He would save them, but he couldn't just do it now.

He sighed and prodded on. Eventually something new rose over the horizon.

"What is this…" Ivo muttered.

He surveyed something in the distance. A scrap yard of some kind. It was surrounded by some city-like barricades.

Yet another of Sonic's plans. Ivo guessed, and he grinned slightly and continued on his journey.


	4. Chapter 4

**Well, here we are, back for the next chapter. It's been a little while, eh? Ah well, here we go.**

* * *

The Springyards

Ivo examined the area below him from a nearby hill as the evening came on. It was truly amazing how quickly the Hedgehog had assembled all of this, but Ivo's builder bots were fast. Extremely fast.

But the springyards were not entirely finished to begin with. While the overall structure was halfway or so complete, there were plenty of holes. The internal springyards were protected by a collection of walls.

Ivo was retuning the springs on this mechanised legs to ensure their efficiency. He had to be sure his mechanised parts would not fail. Anything else could kill the doctor. Satisfied, he packed up his portible heater and stood up, ensuring his legs were secured.

With a deep breath, he set off in a slow jog down the hills towards the springyards. He encountered little as he came down at first; however after around five minutes, he encountered his first collection of bots. Buzzbombers and some kind of crab.

He landed hard and broke the first cab apart. The charge sprinted away as he began his small engagement. The buzzbombers spun and locked on. The doctor sprung into the air and landed atop the first buzzbomber. Using the single one as a spring, he landed atop the others, taking them out with ease.

The crabs below attempted to scatter, but they weren't fast enough. The doctor paused to survey the carnage he'd caused. It was amazing he found, how natural and instinct his attacks were. He hadn't ended up thinking much during it.

It was dangerous; He realised. While these bots were too dumb to plan, other bots, such as the buzzbomber he'd encountered earlier, could be a threat if he started going automatic during these fights.

He would need to be careful in the future.

The doctor reached the walls around the spring yard, and easily located a hole into the structure. Inside, he found the strong, flat outer appearance of the scrap yard was very deceptive. Inside was a whole mix of u-shaped slopes, and ramps, and oddly placed springs. The place almost seemed to be connected by a series of small tunnels.

"Gah!" Ivo gasped as he nearly fell from an exitway down into a huge pit with a curved bottom. This was an absurd design. What was the point of all this?

So much of the place seemed to be randomly strewn together. It seemed like a mad house; Somewhere where Sonic sent the defective builder bots Sonic must have replicated.

Ivo pondered the possibility. How much had the Hedgehog been able to build. It hadn't even been a days since he'd stolen the builder bots. How had he built all this?

Ivo located a gap across the pit; which appeared to have a passageway leading away the pit. The mechanised legs allowed Ivo to fall from great distances without taking any damage. The doctor sprinted forward and jumped. Falling for a brief few seconds, Ivo hit the ground without injury. A buzzbomber was waiting for him.

As the bit drew its rear up to fire, Ivo lunged forward. Lacking the room to attack by jumping atop the bot, The fat man slid underneath. The bot readjusted as the doctor reached the end of the tunnel, which opened out to yet another curve-bottomed pit. With no other options, the doctor jumped down, hoping to land on solid ground.

He somewhat successful. The doctor hit the slope and stumbled backyards, falling over, only to land on a spring, which launched him high into the air. Ivo was spinning for a few seconds, until he landed hard against the ground.

The doctor lay still for a few moments, confused, until he sat up and looked directly down. He had landed on some kind of platform held in the air by a few support girders. He'd been taken to near the top of this wall, looking down, he saw he was around halfway through it. Half constructed builds and several strange structures that looked primarily like big, long tubes.

Ivo heard a rumble, though. The buzzbomber was following. Ivo swallowed, hoping that it wasn't the one from the lava filled area before.

Luckily for him, it wasn't. The bot flew in a slow, simple pattern. As soon as it came close enough so that the doctor was sure he could bounce back to the platform after landing, he did it.

The doctor landed back, and watched as the small bird inside fluttered off into the horizon. Ivo smiled slightly as he watched the bird disappeared into the horizon. No time for sentimentality, especially so deep into the enemy territory.

He surveyed the platforms and pathways directly underneath him. Having eventually selected a way down he went for it, falling down to another walkway. From there, he repeated, only hit a less strong platform, which immediately snapped under his weight.

The doctor swore as the platform went 45 degrees down. He snarled, but landed feet down and started running. Taking advantages of the holey terrain and mostly unfinished buildings, Ivo managed to speed through the series of collapsing platforms for several seconds. However, he eventually hit a more solid platform that held under his weight.

Looking back, he realised that most of the platforms had fallen, but the superstuctures had survived mostly intact. The doctor proceeded down the long platform. At the end, he found a capsule and busted it open. As the animals sprang free, Ivo paused to ponder the morality of letting the collection of wild animals loose in the metallic city.

Given the incomplete nature of the springyard, though, Ivo was confident most animals would find their way out.

The doctor proceded down a collection of steps, having cleared the walls and entered the centre of the springyards. Ahead was an almost eerie darkened collection of buildings.

Ivo felt unsettled looking at it. It was almost apocalyptic. Ivo stopped for a second, observing the cities. Could this be the hedgehog's intentions? His plans to fill the world with cities such as these?

It seemed so dark and depressing. And yet, was the realisation of what the collection of tubes and tunnels around the area were for. They were running tracks and obstacles for the blue speedster.

How had he built all this in such little time? It was only this afternoon or so when he come back to see his bots stolen…

What the Hedgehog had been stealing the bots before todays, but in lesser quantities? No: Ivo did inventory checks every week; So but seemed impossible; Could the Hedgehog have been smart enough to build his own builder bots?

Ivo had an uneasy feeling about it now. He now truly realised he was now deep within Sonic's terrain. If he was going to survive against the Hedgehog, he'd prove it here.

* * *

Sonic the Hedgehog snarled and threw the pencil across the room in anger. He was no scientist, but surely creating new designs for robots couldn't be this hard.

He need to hit the doctor with some new design; As he burned through the doctor's plans, he needed something to surprise that fatman and finish him off before he became some kind of martyr. Last thing the Hedgehog need was a resistance with a leader to rally behind.

He feed another modification for the transport mobile to his personal builder bots. They pored over the doctor's plans with unbelievable interest, beginning their work immediately.

He had worked so hard to make this move, and it couldn't be better. Not only was the island under his control, hut anyone who could challenge him by name of his thugs were out of business, and his armies were all under steady production, and GUN was unaware of his plot.

If only that Egghead hadn't shown up.

Sonic thought back as to how this whole thing started; close to a week ago, he had snuck into the doctor's place of residence. The doctor only had two builder bots. He would definitely notice if one or two went missing; But…

Sonic had found the plans and fed them to the bots. They gladly build the Hedgehog his very own bot. All without touching the scrap supply the doctor had very much. Sonic even managed to get a second one built with minimal difference to the reserve. Taking his leave, Sonic took the two bots back to the cave he resided in.

And he had the two mine the cave and build replicates of each other. It was so simple. Before the end of the day, he had a thousand bots. He established a mining system with five hundred bots, with the rest all going into the building effort.

Soon they had built him a city. A factory for more bots. An army. And even a leisure centre for himself. The spring zone, as he called it. A mix between his own private fortress and his entertainment source. The walls would not only be impregnable, but well connected, allowing him to quickly run between them, and even entertain himself with their twists and turns.

That's all that Spring yard zone, as he called it, was. For him. The city, pah, what use did he have for people to live there? But it would make a great place to enjoy the many nooks and crannies of. He may even model later cities off it. And he could use it as propaganda. Maybe he would even let some of his loyal subordinates live here.

The city had a simple layout; A large series of walls, surrounding a large suburb, encircling an internal section of large city buildings, along with several factories inside. The buildings of the suburbs were storage mostly.

All he needed there was his loyal robot army. No chance of betrayal from them. So much success on his behalf, and yet, why was he disturbed so much.

"We have detected priority one target just entered the perimeter wall. Power storage A5 has been opened and load escaped." A flat, emotionless voice informed him.

It was a egg-shaped security bot.

"Priority one?" Snarled the blue hedgehog.

"Yes, great one." It responded.

Sonic accelerated over to the city-wide broadcast speaker and hit it up.

"Attention all forces! Priority one target has entered the area. Proceed to sector A5 and destroy him at once!" He yelled, and closed the channel.

The security bot turned and sprinted off.

"Bring me back good news, or so help me…" He snarled viciously.

 _How dare_ that scientist come here! Had he not been seen off by the defences?

Well, in fairness, the wall weren't complete yet. There would have been plenty of holes to sneak through. The blue speedster ground his teeth. How long would this beach ball continue to annoy him?

"Modifications to Egg mobile complete, great one." Reported one of the builder bots.

 _Finally._ The Blue Hedgehog thought, and jumped into the air, landing atop the vehicle.

Popping open the hatch and jumping inside it, the Hedgehog ignited the main engines and took off. The hatch above his residence opened, allowing the blue flier access to the sky. Sonic opened up the display, which revealed the location of the scientist.

Without waiting, he set off.

* * *

Ivo first became aware of his status as the words rang out calling out for him to be captured.

"Well, at least he's honest about his intentions." Ivo mused aloud, and started sprinting down they walkway, which lay above the collection of dark builds that made up the suburbs of this city.

The first collection of bots to arrive were a collection of speeding motobugs. Ivo sprang upwards and hit off the first one, springing off into the air. He hit the grounds as another bot swept around and powered around. The doctor waited, and then launched upwards and sprang off as the bot neared.

He landed and broke the bot apart. The final motobug paused uncertainly, and Ivo set his springs to be ready to launch. The motobug applied some breaks for a few seconds, but spun up its wheel, releasing a trail of smoke and building speed.

It released after a few seconds, and Ivo sprung into the air, twisting as he did so. With a slam he came down on the motobug, and the robot's shell collapsed. A pig sprang free and began running down the walkway, back towards the walls.

The doctor continued on for a minute or so without any interuptions, until a series of buzzbombers accelerated towards Ivo. He paused and took a stance, waiting to see weither or not they would be like the buzzbomber earlier.

That robot really put some paranoia in the doctor. The lack of them was also interesting; Why was Sonic keeping them in the dark? Was he too lazy to build more, or was he keeping them as a secret weapon?

Or was it an oddity? Something unintended?

The doctor swallowed waited for the buzzbombers to take attack positions. They stopped and aimed. Not intelligent, then. The doctor advanced in a slow sprint. As the bots fired, Ivo launched forward, gaining about ten meters of air before landing atop a buzzbomber.

The bot exploded, and Ivo used the air to land again and and again atop the buzzbombers. They just simply lacked the ability to adapt to his strategy and movement.

Without fail, he landed one after the other and shattered them. He landed unhurt. The animals scarpered off. Ivo stopped and examined this yard closely. Below the walkway, there was a huge circle of suburbs that surrounded the outskirts of the distant city. The Suburbs of the city were dark and abandoned.

Unnerving. So very unnerving.

"Well, doctor! A pleasure to see you!" A familiar voice yelled.

Sonic.

Ivo sighed and stopped, looking up as the blue flier arrived, hovering above the walkway. A large spike had been installed on the bottom.

"And to you…" The doctor grumbled.

"What do you think of my fortress?"

"This is your fortress?" The scientist queried, Looking around, rather confused at the fact he was calling the city his fortress.

"Yes! It is!" Sonic replied happily. "This will be my city, and from here, I will rule the world."

"How do you even intend to make people want to live here?" The doctor asked. "It's all dark and dreary. I wouldn't live here. I don't think anyone would live here."

"I don't want anyone to live here. It's all just for me. A city to play in, and look good to the people I rule. Something for them to strive to, I guess." Sonic laughed.

"Big plans, Hedgehog." The doctor sighed. "I can't let you do that, though. Not while I'm here."

"I don't think you're going to stop me, anyway." The blue hedgehog grinned.

He leaned forward and through his hands across the levers and mechanisms of the hovering vehicle. It plunged down and slammed spike down into walkway.

It wasn't very fast. The doctor didn't even move as the vehicle came down; Sonic wasn't targeting him.

"Why do you have a spike on your vehicle anyway?" The scientist sighed.

Sonic raised the vehicle back into the sky, pulling a large block up with him, attached to the spike.

"To do this!" The Hedgehog laughed, and pressed a button.

The block shattered, raining fragments down from the sky. Ivo looked up at the vehicle.

"You'll feel a sharp pain, and then nothing!" Sonic laughed.

The doctor sighed at the plain flaw in the plan.

"That thing won't hit me. It's way too slow." He explained.

"You don't say that; I say that!" Sonic yelled in retaliation.

He took aim and powered down towards Ivo. The scientist stepped aside as the vehicle hit the ground. The doctor turned at looked across at the Hedgehog as he furiously worked the levers, trying to free his wedged vehicle.

Ivo raised a leg and kicked the Egg mobile as hard as he could. The vehicle was ripped clear of the ground, carrying another block with it, with some steam venting from the damaged panel.

"See now?" The scientist asked.

The Hedgehog was far too angry now to actually see what Ivo meant. And so, he circled the doctor at a decently high speed. Ivo stood and watched him closely, waiting for the move he knew the Hedgehog would eventually make.

He got predictable when angry, which turned the fight even more to the doctor's favour. As he came at him, Ivo set his springs to full and launched upwards. As he did, he twisted and slammed down against the glass covering the Hedgehog. It cracked as he hit once, twice, thrice…

Sonic kicked the engines hard and banked away. Ivo gave up his stomp to land back on the walkway, which with the two large holes carved into it were beginning to suffer as a result.

The doctor looked up as Sonic curved around him again.

"ALL BOTS!" He screamed. "CONVERGE ON MY LOCATION AND DESTROY PRIORITY TARGET!"

The doctor rolled his eyes behind his goggles.

"Really? Getting your- No, My bots, to do the work?" He sniped off.

The Hedgehog snarled, but knew his vehicle couldn't go another round with the doctor, so turned tail and flew away. Ivo followed briefly, but a squad of buzzbombers separated them.

Once again, these bots were unintelligent and all stopped for their attack. Ivo sprang off and broke up several bots along the line. He lost track of Sonic as he bet off the bots. And yet more came on. Motobugs, crabs, several other kinds of robotic animals.

Buzzbomber swirled through the air above. Faced with little options and unable to get close enough to the bots, he turned and leapt off the walkway down to the suburbs below. Shots echoed and fell from above, smashing through the buildings around him. The buildings were flimsy, and fell quickly under the fire from above.

The doctor sprinted through the buildings as fire rained down from above. He needed cover, and he needed it fast. He spotted what appeared to be an opening to a tunnel system. He turned and adjusted his course, finally lunging into the tunnel.

Two shots smashed into his back, knocking the doctor over. He rolled once and just managed to climb to his feet. He still had plenty of rings left to protect himself. Three more shots whizzed by, and doctor slid into the tunnel.

The fire continued. The tunnel wasn't going to hold up under the bombardment. Dust fell from the ceiling. The doctor couldn't stay here; the tunnel entrance would soon collapse under the fire. He wouldn't find any cover out there, but this might be the only entrance to this tunnel. If the entrance fell, we would be trapped.

He swallowed, looking back and forward. The tunnel appeared to be a mine shaft. Sonic have been using his bots to mine the area under his city for materials. That had to mean that there was another entrance.

He swallowed, and ran down the tunnel. It continued to groan under the fire from above, and even a couple of motobugs entered. The tunnel wasn't large enough to allow Ivo to jump up and crack their shells open, so he used the mechanised spring legs to sprint down the tunnel.

A rumble split the air. Ivo turned around to see the tunnel entrance falling apart, collapsing behind him. Ivo quicken his pace as quickly as this tunnel would allow him, but the tunnel was falling apart quickly.

The tunnel opened into a large mining chamber. It fell apart as he passed through it. Ivo was rather panicked now; He'd underestimated how long this collapse would last. But as he rounded another rather sharp split in the road; he noticed that the ground changed from mined to building blocks.

Ruins.

Ancient ruins.

Ivo watched as the collapse halted as it proper structure. He let out a relieved breath as he watched the debris grind to a halt.

After a few minutes to regain his breath, Ivo realised that he'd lost his travel pack. He immediately let out a cry of anger as he realised this fact.

"Fine. Fine. It's absolutely fine." He growled to himself. "Where am I, anyway?"

He set off into the ruins.


	5. Chapter 5

**Well, we got two reviews and some favs and follows between the last chapters. So, thanks for that, NoOneExpectsDarkBrotherhood and camrynboylan.**

 **So guys, R &R, mes amigos.**

A darkened Labyrinth

Ivo plodded on down the tunnels. The ruins seemed to be lit by some unseen source, at the very least unseen to the doctor. Ivo examined the nearby area. Nothing suggesting a light source. Interesting.

The air was rather old and stale. It was also hot. The doctor was starting to sweat. As he walked further down the tunnel, be became aware of a constant noise of… water?

He reached an opening in the tunnel. Below was a opening which was a lake… Ivo jumped down and hit damn tiles. He frowned. The tunnel elevated a short distance ahead. Ivo continued along, before realising the tunnel dropped back down into an abyss of water.

Ivo frowned. His mechanised legs weren't built for underwater traversal. But it looked as though the tunnels would force him underwater. He frowned. He glanced at his forearm and spotted a faint glowing golden field around him. He evidently still had some rings in his system. While they formed a small shield around his body, did they give him air underwater? Did the shield form an air shell of sorts?

The doctor grunted slightly. Only one way to find out; and it was his only hope of getting out of here. He peaked over the edge and looked down into the water. It disappeared into the murky depths that formed a collection of tunnels. Ivo surveyed the tiles that made up the tunnel system. From what he could gather, this wasn't meant to be built underwater. So the tunnels under were built to be connected to other things.

Ivo dropped in. Immediately it grew quiet as he dropped in. As he slowly drifted down, he examined the walls. The way this place was built made no sense in a waterless environment. However, he spotted a section of groves along the wall that had probably once been meant for wood.

That actually made much more sense, thinking about it.

Suddenly, Ivo realised something. He was bone dry. The ring shields around him had kept the air in. Although, they weren't thick enough to keep much air in. Were they creating air?

A sound rang through the air- no… A series of sounds. A series of tones that seemed to be getting faster and faster. It was Eerie. The doctor kicked his legs slightly, attempting to pull into a nearby tunnel, when a a bubble of air rose from below and popped around him: the tone immediately died.

The air around Ivo seemed to freshen slightly.

Hmmm, he noted, It seems that it doesn't create air, and that tone is my warning.

He kicked harder and swam through the tunnel quickly. Before long, he noted that the area ahead brightened somewhat, and swam directly upwards.

He exploded to the surface of the water and looked around. The tunnel turned to his right and rose out of the water. He proceeded to swim over and climb out of the water.

It was a strange sensation to have water dripping from the golden shields of the rings but not from his clothes.

He became aware that the air here was much cooler and fresher. Perhaps he was on the pathway to getting out of here.

There was also light here; the light seemed to be coming from a collection of crystals that scattered the pathways at random intervals. The doctor walked over to examine the patch of crystals more closely.

"Interesting." Ivo noted aloud, running his hand across the surface of the nearest one.

He also ended up getting speared by some kind of robot hiding beneath the surface. He didn't immediately recognise the design, but he did note several key features; for one, the robots hands and face were drill bits.

That had enabled it to hide underground, and even explode out rapidly for an ambush. Ivo twisted backwards and evaded the attack.

The bot landed and levelled its drill features towards him. The doctor, sensing his opportunity, launched into the air, and smacked down hard on the robots exposed head.

The shell cracked under the weight, and a bird flew free of the wreckage, disappearing into a semi-large crack above.

Ivo landed again and proceeded onwards twice again he was stopped by these robots, but eventually, he reached the end of the walkway.

It opened out into another pool of water. Down below, Ivo spotted several extruding platforms, some of which were surrounded by spikes.

Looking around, he saw no other paths or tunnels below. All the same, from the angle he was looking in at, he couldn't see everything underwater.

There was no other alternate path out from the surface, anyway.

He stared down at the water, then made up his mind. He dove straight into the water and powered down using leg mechanised legs. The airshell around him was present again, proving it was a constant underwater.

Ivo made a mental note to study it later. When he wasn't trapped in a series of underground tunnels, that was.

He twisted to avoid a platform of spikes. Why were those even constructed here, anyway? He spun around and hovered nearby the spikes, examining them more closely. They seemed newer then most of the materials that were down here. So this place had been set up, prepared, for the doctor. He paused, frozen in thought.

You're definitely not running out of air sitting here doing nothing, are you?

Ivo snapped out of it and dived. The doctor examined the area around him. He couldn't see another passageway out of here.

He spun around again. Something on the floor caught his attention. A pile of bubbles swirling near the floor. It suddenly globed into a huge bubble. The doctor twisted and hit the bubbled dead on. The bubble popped, refilling and refreshing his air reserve.

Ivo settled above the bubbly pile and surveyed the floor of the chamber in hope of finding another passageway out.

His vision was not his greatest strength, but they were no to be underestimated. Admittedly, his goggles sometimes made seeing underwater difficult. He reluctantly raised them and searched around again. A pop caught his attention again; a bubble had taken flight and had been caught.

Something caught his eye on the floor. Something grey and blue. He examined it closely revealing it to be an elevated cylinder.

A button?

Only one way to find out.

Ivo raised his foot and pressed down hard on it. The button held for a second, then depressed under his weight. Across the room, the doctor heard a faint rumble, and turned in time to spot a doorway of some kind ascending, revealing a new passageway.

Ivo grinned and kicked off, swimming as fast as he could towards it, only pausing to collect another air bubble, and sped into the opening, disappearing into the new passageway.

A short passageway down to an upwards and downwards split. The doctor pulled up and accelerated towards the surface, eventually breaking through into another chamber. Still dry from the ring shields, Ivo clambered onto dry land and surveyed this new passageway.

The doctor had figured out how this place worked by now. The way ahead was blocked by simple on puzzles. Ivo always had enjoyed puzzles, admittedly not ones that meant life or death.

* * *

Somewhere distant, in a dark chamber that some might call a "Laboratory", a single robot approached its master.

"All tunnel traps deployed." Reported the robot.

"Good, good." Sonic grinned. "You may have got this far, doc, put I promise you you'll go no further..."

He powered on a plasma screen that was tracking the doctor's progress.

When Sonic had set up here, he hadn't realised the labyrinth lay beneath him. All the same, all it had taken was a simple sonar probe to reveal the tunnels. They made a nice base to deploy his mining bots from.

But, at the same time, the ruins had also held an interesting secret. The crystals. Glowing in the dark, they were rare across the rest of the world, and yet plentiful here. They served no practical purpose, but it was good omen for building here.

"The target has penetrated sector one and is approaching power container one." Came another report.

Sonic snarled loudly. This wasn't supposed to be happening. The plan had been to lure the doctor into the labyrinth, and have him be stuck there.

The mess of tricks and traps should have isolated the doctor by now. The fact that he was making his way through was cause for concern.

In fairness though, Sonic had had the traps install so he could throw his challengers into them and watch as they struggled to find their way out. The scientist was easily outsmarting the Hedgehog's traps.

Simple traps, though, purely to prolong Sonic's amusement. He wasn't felling that amused, though, watching the doctor push his way through, cracking animal capsules and bots along his way.

He frowned again. He wondered how many traps the doctor had missed by being too early.

"The target is halfway through sector two." Another report came.

Sonic slammed his hand down hard on a nearby table. Of course, it being metal, meant some pretty bad hand pain. None of which added to the Hedgehog's mood.

Growling and rubing his hand, he turned back to watch around five builder-bots at work on his hover vehicle.

He wondered if he could ambush the doctor with it as he emerged. He turned and pulled a keyboard from underneath the plasma screen, tapping a button to bring up a view of the closer to centre ruins.

The tunnels closer to him were large enough to admit the vehicle. And the traps were more complete and fiendish near the centre.

Sonic's scowl began to morph as this new idea took hold.

"Hurry up and have my transport ready at once!" He yelled. "I'm going to have pay our old friend a visit."

* * *

Ivo powered underwater again, collecting a bubble as he passed one. The traps were getting smarter. The doctor had no objection to that; he enjoyed the challenge.

The main threat in the Labyrinth was the underwater tunnels, but with the rings to provide him an airshell, he was fine.

The robots down here were jokes. The drilling design or what it was called(At one point, this might have bothered at this point, but at this point, he couldn't have cared less) was no longer a nuisance, as when you spotted their pattern, cracking them was simple.

He walked down another passageway illuminated by the crystals growing out of the walls. A turn appeared, which led to a wall. Above the wall was an opening. Evidnetly there had once been a stairway or ladder here once.

He launched off the ground and grabbed the edge tightly. With a handful of grunts, he pulled himself up onto the top passageway.

It was another corridor. Ivo frowned and surveyed the corridor. It was empty and somewhat darker. Another turn could be just spotted dead ahead.

He raised a foot and began an advance. The doctor expected a trap. It'd be foolish not to. He'd encountered plenty of them along the tunnels of this maze.

He surveyed the walls closely. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. His lowered his gaze to the floor. The floor seemed indifferent too, just a collection of blocks. Not stacked perfectly, but decent enough for ancient ruins.

Once again Ivo pondered the creators of these ruins. Who's could have hand the numbers to build suck a structure, and even more interesting(Or scary) was the fact that they were all gone.

He checked the ceiling, and satisfied, stepped forward. Immediately, something power straight from the wall and smashed into Ivo's shoulder. He yelped as the ring's energy shield erupted to life. A handful of rings burst away from his body and disappeared.

The doctor's hand flew to his shoulder, to find it uninjured. He exhaled slowly. The rings had saved him again. Ivo couldn't sense if he had any more rings in his system. There were barely any rings down in this labyrinth. So, he didn't have much chance of getting more. He'd have to be even more careful.

The doctor examined the corridor more careful. This was not a good trap. Ivo was just getting careless. He couldn't afford to keep making these mistakes.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Judging by the origin of the projectile, he figured that the arrow had been launched from the right.

Probably a pressure pad of some kind. The doctor stepped back as far as he could, before charging straight across the pit as fast as he could. Longer legs and the mechanisations made him practically fly over the pads.

A series of arrows launched, but the doctor outstripped them and reached the cooridor end without injury. He impacted against the wall arms first and spun on his heel.

A handful of arrows hand impacted and stuck against the far side wall. Ivo laughed for a brief second upon noticing the fire behind him, and that he was unharmed.

He stepped forward and rounded the corner. Down another corridor, right out to an opening about a car's length down.

Ahead lay an animal capsule, unguarded and just begging to be popped open. A faint smile crossed the doctor's face, and he sprinted forward and sprung off, landing on the top button and springing off that. Behind him, the capsule popped out, releasing their charges.

"Ah, doc..." Sonic complained as his repaired vehicle dropped down from a upward shaft at the other end of the chamber. "Do you have any Idea how hard it is to catch those to begin with?"

The doctor fixed the Hedgehog with a resigned glance. Sonic sighed and entered the chamber properly.

Ivo shifted his feet into a battle stance. Sonic noticed and halted his advance.

The doctor grinned. This whole place favoured him in a fight. A low ceiling, a narrow enough room, all of it favoured Ivo. Sonic appeared to have realised this.

"But I must be going..." Sonic said.

He lowered his gaze and to operate the vehicle controls, but it was at that moment that Ivo opened the fight. Faster than anyone would expect, he charged across the chamber and launched into the air. Sonic spotted the man, and while his eyes could track the doctor, his body couldn't react fast enough to avoid the attacker as he slammed feet first into the vehicle.

"Gah!" The Hedgehog cried as the vehicle spun backwards and bounced off the ground.

Ivo hit the ground and bounced off as his bowling ball back landed first. He rolled backwards and landed feet down.

Ivo grinned. He couldn't help but compliment himself on the move as Sonic's hands flew across the controls as the Hedgehog tried to save his vehicle. He spun about and powered up the corridor. The doctor charged after the hedgehog.

He reached the doorway and glanced up. The upward shaft was quiet broad, able to accommodate the hedgehogs hover vehicle, while at the same time being perilous for anyone attempting to climb.

All the same, that's what the doctor did, persuing the vehicle up the shaft. Ivo jumped up several ledges, avoiding spikes attached to the edges and undersides.

Sonic ascended, while Ivo sprang after him, avoiding spears and spikes that appeared along his path.

Sonic was beginning to gain a lead on the doctor. Ivo evaded another trap, and watched as Sonic pulled down onto a corridor above. The pitch of his engine increased as he began to pick up speed.

The doctor launched off and landed just one jump away from the ledge of the corridor. He could hear the engines fading as Sonic widened the gap.

Ivo spun impulsively and kicked off. As he wizzed through the air, he extended his arms. With a hard twac, he slammed into the ledge.

Someone, the Doctor kept his grip, despite having a beach ball chest. His arms also managed to pull him up and over relatively easily.

It was almost instinct to him now. He found that amazing, how much he turned from thinking that everything had to be calculated and careful, to being as reckless and just knowing what he could do and doing it without thinking.

He turned back to face the corridor just in time to see Sonic pull the vehicle back and arc straight through a gap in the ceiling. He powered forward and after the hedgehog. The shaft ahead appeared to have no way to get up and above, the doctor observed, or more accurately the wood that had made up the stairs that had once been there had moulded away.

Ivo, however, had an idea. As he reached the opening, he slowed to a halt. The doctor reached down to his mechanised legs and began to manipulate the springs, dialling up their compression tension, basically, making them seriously sensitive to even the slightest movement. He made one foot step forward, and the step launched his foot around three feet into the air.

He quickly recovered. With the sensitivity up, he began to slide across to the optimal side of the opening, careful to distribute his weight evenly to prevent any unexpected launches. After a few seconds, he decided he was good enough.

Ivo jumped with everything he could muster. The first jump took him around six feet into the air. He didn't even clear the ceiling with the first jump, but that height allowed him to put some serious power into the next jump. The springs launched with a powerful twang, taking the scientist high into the air, clearing the ruins and bursting out into fresh- (well, fresher than in the ruins) air.

As he ascended into the air, he noticed that Sonic had turned about, and had gathered a small army to encircle him. The doctor returned to earth after rising about twenty feet above the ground. As he hit home, however, both of his springs snapped.

In retrospect, it was probably just as well, as if they hadn't he may have ended up perpetually springing into the heavens. The metal encasing his legs prevented the springs jutting in and causing any damage, but now the doctor was in a sticker situation.

He had no rings, and no way out or to fight. The bots held fast, and prepared to fire.

"Endda the line, eh doc?" Sonic called across.

"Would appear so." The doctor observed, using a bit of banter in hopes of delaying the bots as long as he could.

Sonic grinned and leaned forward in the console.

"I'll be sure to remember you, doc. You've come closer to the heart of my operation that I would have expected."

"Do I win an award?"

The Hedgehog actually broke out into laughter for a few minutes at that one. All the time that the doctor could need, he was getting.

He surveyed the area around the bots. He was on the edge of the internal city of Sonic's main base. The building above were well lit, even though the sun had set. A set of springs caught his eye.

A group was packed into a small place, presumably set up for construction.

"Fire!" Sonic roared.

Ivo launched off as the bots charged and fired. Shots whizzed through the air, and Ivo jumped forward, landing atop a motobug and popping it apart, using the height to land on another and continue his trajectory, right up until the springs…

He landed and sprung off, powering into the air. The spring just took him over the edge of a wide steel beam sticking off an unfinished building. Ivo landed hard down, but mostly unharmed. He'd need to replace his leg's springs soon, he couldn't really fight effeinctly without them. And given the fact he'd lost his tools, things looked set to be much, much harder than he anticipated.

A shot whizzed through the building, ahead to his right. It melted through the steel in its path. The doctor looked down to see that the robotic army had turned their firepower up.

But Sonic appeared to have little notice for this change of events, as he set off into the heart of his city. With no bots on the rooftops as far as Ivo could see, he set off to follow. The sun had set for quite a while now, and the clouds had parted. The doctor paused for a second to look up.

He had always been fascinated by the starlight. But now there was work at hand.


	6. Chapter 6

**Well, here we go, next chapter up, on a weekly interval like I intended! I would have preferred Friday, but the weekend is good. Thank you to Sage and Rosemary and NoOneExpectsDarkBrotherhood for their reviews of the last part.**

 **In this part, I'm going to begin to seriously break from following the original games closely. I'm looking forward to finishing up Act 1, mostly because I feel the chapters are rather repetitive, being Ivo goes through the zone, beats robots and fights Sonic, and proceed to next.**

 **The sequels I feel will give me a lot more stuff to add to chapters. It might get... heavier than I anticipated.**

 **Anyway guys, R &R!**

* * *

A cold wind bit at the doctor as he moved across the buildings high above. No resistance appeared to stop him as he did. He had cleared the fire area from below relatively quickly, and now walked in silence.

It suited the doctor, though. He could feel the begins of exhaustion creeping in as looked up at the starlight, and the adrenaline was beginning to drain from his system, making him more tired as it did.

He looked across another set of metal boards to spot a lone motobug on patrol, alone. Ivo took a step forward, then paused.

It could be a simple trap. He couldn't see any bots waiting nearby. He really needed the springs for his legs, though. He contemplated it for a few seconds. Eventually, he decided the risk was worth the reward.

Jumping down a from the elevated platform he stood on, he crossed several sets of steel boards towards the oblivious robot.

However, it didn't stay that way for long, eventually spotting the doctor as he closed the distance. The bot gave a war cry of some kind, and charged.

Ivo jumped. Without springs, he didn't go very high, but he was high enough to bring up his right foot and bring it down hard into the face of the bot.

The motobug's shell burst apart as the bot spun backwards and fell into pieces. Ivo turned and raced over it, to the centre of the open steel platform the bot had been patrolling.

It would give him the best point in the event of this being an ambush.

He stood, waiting, for what seemed like an eternity. It was actually more along the line of a minute. He listened as hard as he could, his eyes darting across the starlit rooftop, watching for any sign of an ambush.

Satisfied the bot was alone, the doctor strode over to the wrecked motobug and began to examine the shell.

He tossed away some of the larger outer shell before getting into the "meat" or more accurately, internals, of the bot.

He found his replacement springs and began the lengthy process of attaching the new springs too his legs. Ivo didn't have any tools this time, though.

The process was longer than he wanted it to be. Without tools, he had to manually attach and stretch the springs into position, which was difficult. His body shape wasn't really... Good for that manoeuvre.

After around an hour of struggle, Ivo finally managed to have both of his legs repaired and set to go. In retrospect, the doctor recognised the pure impulsive of the move of setting his strings to full.

He probably could have found another way up, or got out using a series of wall kicks, perhaps? Or maybe...

Ivo shook his head to clear his mind. He needed his mind here and now, not dwelling on the past.

He tested both legs, and finding them working as intended, set off. The towering skyscrapers were much less intimidating up close, only... Sad and depressing. They were incomplete, and hollow.

Perhaps someday, after Sonic was beaten, perhaps he could turn this into a city of some kind. Become a real estate Tycoon. He grinned as he thought about it. He seriously couldn't see himself doing that in the future. He always had preferred South Island being a quiet place.

 _Am I becoming a sentimental old man?_ He asked himself.

He continued walking across the rooftops of the buildings, navigating sets of I-beams and sheets of steel.

He was still surprised by the lack of resistance he'd encountered by now. In fact; there were even occasional sets of rings hovering in the air up here.

Ivo snagged whatever he could find, not wanting to be caught unprotected. He navigated across a set of thin I-beams, using the magnets on his mechanised legs to secure him, rapidly activating and deactivating them.

Without any incident, he reached the other side and examined his next path; a slope upwards, and then across a set of steel sheets suspended by a set of cranes overhead.

Considering it easy enough, Ivo launched up and over the slope. He landed and advanced on the sheets. As he walked forward, he heard something. A faint whine of buzzbomber engines.

The doctor froze and tilted his head just in time to watch a squad of the bots ascend from the depths. They immediately formed a straight line and thrust their stringer sections forward.

Ivo knew what would happen next. He had no intention of sticking around for that. Turning back to the steel sheet path, he jumped forward. He landed on the first one. Immediately he tapped a button on his wrists. The doctor's legs were immediately magnetised to sheet, which swung as the crane adjusted to the weight of it's new load.

The buzzbombers opened fire. Shots whizzed through the air, one hitting the doctor in the back. A series of rings exploded into the air. The steel platform spun as shots whizzed around it. Others dashed against the underside of the sheet. The sheet could take several impacts, but they mostly went straight through it. Not wanting to stay in the firing range, Ivo lunged forward again, aiming for another platform. He disengaged the magnets and sprung forward. He brought his left leg up and hit the sheet hard. He squeezed his wrists. The magnets activated, securing said leg to the sheet. The sheet spun, and Ivo brought up his other leg to regain his balance. The buzzbombers retargeted and prepared to fire. The doctor selected another platform and changed over as the bots fired. Their aim was improving; the previous steel sheet was slip in half by the first volley and slipped out of the ropes holding it up.

Ivo spotted another sheet which was then range of an I-beam that would allow him access to the interior of a nearby building.

Perfect.

He sprung off again, and attached to the next sheet. The buzzbombers turned and flew in to intercept Ivo. Evidently, they had guessed his plan. With no time to waste, the doctor launched forward. He landed on the I-beam and ran forward into the building.

The buzzbombers accelerated upwards. They must have been planning to intercept him. Fortunately, these bots didn't seem smart enough compared to the buzzbomber he'd fought back in the marble fields.

He heard patters from around him as the buzzbombers blaster the building, but nothing that really concern him. He slipped across several small interior steel sheets.

He spotted a set of sloped sheets that formed a rudimentary stairway up to the roof.

Ivo sprung across the chamber and landed, and set off up the slope. It took around a minute to reach the roof. As the doctor reached the roof, he spun rapidly on a foot. He spotted each buzzbomber at a face of the building.

Upon spotting him, they perked up and retargeted him. A collect of rapid jumps, twists and dodges as the buzzbombers locked targets.

A few shots hit home, but Ivo was mostly able to dodge the shots. Eventually, the bots changed strategy, reforming atop the Building, seeming to want to charge him as a group.

The doctor was more than happy to take advantage of this strategy. He launched forward and landed smack atop the nearest bomber. It's shell separated into tiny fragments and its charge flew off into the air.

Ivo hit the ground and rolled to the side as two buzzbomber attempted a sweeping attack. He managed to recover from rolling and regained his footing.

The remaining three buzzbombers reformed and launched a new set of attacks, expanding out to several angles to attack him. Ivo waited, and then launched off. All of the attackers smashed into each other at a single point directly below him.

The doctor laughed as he looked at the shattered fragments of the bots come to a rest. Having spared his moment to enjoy the comedy of their actions, then turned and carried on.

More tight jumps, small platforms and increasingly complete structures began to slow the doctor's progress, however. He eventually realised that he had to stay as high up as he could to jump from rooftop to rooftop, instead of taking a more secluded underpass.

He encountered occasional bots of various designs, but nothing worth noticing. No sign of that advanced buzzbomber he'd seem earlier or any similar acting designs.

Ivo's progress began to slow. This seemed too easy. He wondered if Sonic was setting up a trap somewhere off in the distance, or if he'd forgotten about the scientist entirely. The lack of builder bots seemed to present that narrative, but then again that could have been what Sonic wanted him to think.

As he reached a taller than usual building and climbed it, be became aware of another, taller spire behind it. He pondered it from the roof of his skyscraper. It had to have some purpose, given the fact that it had a bright white twinkling light and a dark surface, which made it near indistinguishable from the starlit sky above.

It had to be hiding something. Ivo was more than happy to find out what. He searched for a pathway of buildings that didn't have to much variance in height, and went for it.

The scientist bounded across the roofs, using his mechanised legs to launch from building to building, until he was right up against the spire.

Down two, up one, over a flat one, finally up another and down a large drop from the final one. Ivo stopped and looked up. Overhead looked the ginormous building. The doctor couldn't help but feel slightly afraid looking up at the structure.

He didn't recognise it, meaning it was an original creation of the hedgehog. Who knew how the building could be designed, or how guarded it was. Ivo could even spot buzzbomber patrols circling the building.

Obviously, this building was important. Ivo turned his eyes back down to the base of the building and searched for the entrance.

He spotted it far below, guarded by a pair of grounders. Ivo surveyed the area surrounding the entrance for additional bots, but could only spot the pair at the entrance.

Satisfied, Ivo pondered his strategy. There weren't any handholds or structures to hold on to or jump to on the way down. He considered jumping down and trying to land on a grounder, using the force of the impact to slow him down.

Perhaps if he fired his springs at the right moment, he could cancel most of his velocity and crush the grounder as well.

Seeing no other option, Ivo made a move that could very well be the end of him, He launched into the night.

For the briefest moment, he was rising, and then the certain hands of gravity reached out and began their task of pulling him towards the ground.

Ivo's moustache was plastered to his face as he picked up speed, but he prepped his feet for landing, and the fall continued. For second after second, right up until...

The doctor fired his springs just as he landed upon the right grounder.

A crack split the air as the doctor smashed through the shell. A rabbit burst from its prison and raced off as Ivo landed.

The doctor staggered for several steps after landing, but had lost enough speed to avoid breaking any bones, although his legs would probably have some lovely bruises in a few days.

The other ground revved and accelerated towards Ivo. He sprung into the air and hit home relatively easily. Another crack, and a small bird flapped into the air.

Ivo didn't stay to watch, running into the spire. Much to his surprise, it was not a clever, Intrigual setup, just a hollow with a single elevator standing in the centre.

Only a motobug squadron stood in his way. Ivo started sprinting towards the elevator and went airbourne again, bounding across three or so motobugs before landing in the elevator and hitting the "up" button.

The doors slammed shut and the elevators rose towards the roof. The motobugs below watched, unsure of their next action, while Ivo took the moment to recover his bearings properly, and catch his breath.

* * *

The voice of a robot filled the secret lab of Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Priority one has penetrated power generation unit one defence one sector."

"What!" Sonic snarled, turning towards the reporting bot angrily.

"Contact with guard bot #726 has been lost." The bot repeated.

The hedgehog drew back a fist and accelerated through the bot, shattering it into pieces. He snarled angrily and spun to a nearby screen.

"Show me power generation unit one." He growled.

The sensor data appeared on the screen, showing the building and the location of every bot inside it.

And a red glow that symbolised the doctor. Sonic pulled out a tablet and activated the security systems.

Sonic had personally designed the basic concepts for the defences of this tower. It was now time to test them. He pulled out the control tablet.

Sonic waited as patiently as he could for the scientist to exit the elevator which took him to the middle of the spire.

He then turned his eyes downwards to the tablet and activated section one.

"Let's see how you do against gravity, eh, doc?"

* * *

The doors of the elevator slid open soundlessly. Ivo peered out into the hallway ahead. There were few lights, and the hallway extended a short distance before turning right.

The doctor cautiously walked out into the hallway. For a few seconds, the doctor only heard silence, then a new noise came to his ears. A grinding.

The ground rumbled slightly, and Ivo felt the ground begin to move, as though it was being pushed out. Ivo turned and jumped back into the elevator, just as the hallway and a slight bit of it after the turn right, was ejected into the night.

The doctor watched in shock as the section fell and shattered against the roof of a building below. Portions of that building collapsed too. Ivo swallowed as he looked outside the elevator again. Cold wind from the high air hit him, and he examined the area where the hallway had one stood.

A series of metal beams and sheets remained, looking like an unfinished building project. Looking down, he could see the floor of the spire. One false step could send him a long way down.

He could see an entrance to the still intact section a hoer distance to the right, but given the uncertain nature of the beams and sheets, the doctor admitted defeat.

He leaned back into the elevator and pressed the down button. Nothing. He tried again. Still nothing.

 _Oh great_. He thought. _How do I get down now?_

He had no other path than beyond. He leaned out carefully, magnetically locking one foot for safety, and placed the other on one I-beam below. It held. He cautiously released the other foot and placed it on the beam. It held. Satisfied, the doctor walked out to the edge left by the ejection.

He saw no way down. He sighed and turned back to the elevator to see a LED screen above the doors stating;

ELEVATOR MOTOR POWER SEVERED; PLEASE RESET CONNECTION TO REACTIVATE THE ELEVATOR.

Ivo looked up to the remaining sections. So, the elevator motor was out, but it could be reactivated by a system in this building.

Ivo clambered over to the exposed and jumping back inside the building.

* * *

Sonic frowned as the doctor appeared in the second section. He tapped a command and shifted the section for ejection.

* * *

The hallway curved with the spire and ascended. Evidently, that was how it kept its round shape without having the elevator access the upper floors. Ivo walked up the hallway, until he heard another rumbling.

This section was now going to eject. He had only one option, sprinting as fast as he could to get to the next section and hoping that only one section was being ejected.

He spotted the frame in the distance and leapt through it, bouncing slightly after landing. Meanwhile, behind him, the section was almost immediately ejected into the night and fell to the buildings below too.

The doctor stood back up, taking a few seconds to catch his breath, and then kept running.

* * *

Sonic realised that his ejection trap wasn't working. It took a few seconds for the section to be loosened and the springs prepared. To add to that, Sonic's info was delayed by around three or so seconds. Enough to make a difference.

"That ain't working, time for phase two!" He laughed, and switched the traps.

He watched as the shaped charges mounted into the metal came online. They were shaped to focus their blast outwards, thereby rendering the spire still intact, but the target hopefully dead.

If the explosions didn't get the doctor, hopefully the shrapnel would. However, there had only been simulations ran for if four sections were detonated. Any more would be seriously pushing the strength of the spire.

That spire, despite everything, could not fall, no matter what.

* * *

Ivo was around two sections through when he heard a large explosion from behind him. A bright orange light lit up the hallway behind him and the tower shook violently.

Ivo immediately realised what it was and increased his pace, tearing up the spiral as quickly as he could. More explosions followed, as Ivo cleared a third section, it exploded behind him. Shrapnel whizzed through the air behind him, but Sonic's precautions had hindered the spread of the shrapnel, due to the focus of the explosions.

Ivo survived, only losing a little bit of ring energy in the act of protecting himself.

* * *

Sonic snarled and threw away the tablet. His traps had failed. He wasn't out of options, though. He headed over the his hover vehicle and climbed aboard. He'd defend the power generator himself.

However, the vehicle also had the capability to allow him to activate the patrolling buzzbombers and link them to the spire's sensors.

Giving them orders to fire on the doctor's position, he lifted off and out of his lab, over the factories of his empire. He knew the buzzbombers wouldn't finish the doctor, but hopefully they would delay him for long enough.

The sky was beginning to lighten at this point, the two spires that were the power generators' night camouflage was no longer much use as the sky brightened.

* * *

Ivo assumed that he was close to the top of the spire now, but the rounded hallways just kept on going and going and going. He hadn't seen or heard any traps in a while now, so perhaps Sonic thought he was dead... Or something else was coming.

As though fate had been waiting for him to ask, something smashed through the metal below and through the inside wall.

Ivo spun, backing up. Another object, a ball of energy, smashed through a bit close to the doctor. Ivo swallowed and quickened his backwards. Another shot, closer still.

Buzzbombers.

The doctor started sprinting, and hell broke lose behind him. A squadron of buzzbombers opened up with an almost automatic spray that ripped apart the section hind the doctor and moved slowly along behind the doctor.

After running through one section, a ladder appeared ahead. A welcome change of scenery, granted, but with the buzzbombers tearing up the walls behind Ivo, it was probably not the fastest form of exit.

All the same, the doctor sprung into the air and grabbed hold of the ladder. He began to climb rapidly, but then paused.

The buzzbombers had stopped firing. In fact, Ivo could hear their engines growing distant. Ivo thought about it. He must have been too close to something important. That would be the only reason Sonic would stop his troops firing.

The doctor kept climbing, eventually reaching a trapdoor, which he pushed open, revealing an open roof to the tower. Ivo squeezed out of the trapdoor and looked around. He spotted a huge, oversized capsule at the dead centre of the structure. Dozens of wires and cables were routed through it. Evidently, this was one of the largest power plants for Sonic's city.

The sun was rising; an orange tint was beginning to fill the sky, and a cold wind bit at the doctor's face. Ivo took a step towards the capsule, before he heard the familiar sound of Sonic's vehicle dropping in behind him.

"Welcome to my city, doctor." Sonic announced. "I don't think I gave you my proper introduction earlier."

Dropped a bit lower.

"You're so annoyingly resistant. Why can't I just conquer the world in peace?"

The doctor raised an eyebrow.

"You should read the history books." Ivo responded. "Plenty have tried to conquer the world. None have succeeded."

"They never had what I do." Sonic retaliated, and gunned his engines.

"Let's finish this!"

"Very well." The doctor turned and sped towards the capsule, launching off and landing on the top of it.

Sonic hit a button on his vehicle console, causing two launchers to appear on either side. A pair of spiked mines landed before the doctor. Ivo jumped backwards and off of the capsule.

The mine detonated, but the capsule was undamaged. Sonic powered around, coming between the doctor and the capsule. His other launcher fired a mine right at Ivo.

The doctor evaded and launched a counterattack, launching up and pulling backwards. He then extended his feet, smashing the vehicle. It spun backwards, smacking off the capsule.

A stream of swearing came from Sonic as Ivo launched back atop the capsule. Two mines flew through the air, detonating before the doctor. He ignored the threat and leapt through the explosion, landing atop the button atop the capsule.

With a loud THUNK, the capsule opened, releasing every animal inside. A sea of panicked, frightened and desperate animals surged from the capsule.

Sonic snarled and spun, reading mines to fire. The doctor, however, intervened, driving down hard on the vehicle's left wing. The mines were sent wide, falling to the buildings below.

The doctor landed and readied himself to attack again. Sonic, evidently feeling he was losing, flew higher and released more mines. The doctor moved out of range easily.

The Hedgehog had a sudden brainwave, and fired another pair, sweeping low with the attack, hoping to surprise the doctor with a new attack.

Ivo, however, was able to adapt, jumping in time to deliver a smash of his mechanised legs into the hover vehicle. Sonic yelled as the vehicle spun away, trailing smoke.

"BUZZBOMBERS!" Sonic screamed over the city intercom, "CRUSH PRIORITY ONE TARGET!"

Ivo peeked over the edge of the spire as Sonic fell below it. The hedgehog was able to recover the fall into a glide, and began to return to his home base.

The doctor watched him go, pondering how he would get down now. Having blown the capsule, he'd released all power for the tower, and probably the majority of the city. He had no idea how he would get down now, as there was no chance of him restoring the power.

His answer, however, came in the form of a buzzbomber squad that rose over the tower edge to his left. If he could take one down, he could possibly attach their engines to his legs and use them to slow his fall.

They opened fire, but the doctor evaded and took cover behind the cylinder. He look around quickly, and spotted a fragment of metal that had been ejected when the capsule had fallen.

He picked it up and peeked the buzzbomber squad. They spotted his head, and arced around to get a firing angle on the doctor. The doctor raised the fragment and waited for the first bot to appear from behind the capsule.

When it did, he threw, hitting it in its midsection. The bot twisted and fell, detonating violently on the platform, scattering a cluster of metal.

Fortunately, the engines hadn't gone over, or looked too damaged. The other bots came around. The doctor sprinted forward, launched up, and drove down on the second bot, sending it to pieces. It's charge flew free of the fall wreckage, and Ivo landed upon the platform unharmed.

He narrowed dodged another shot, and launched off to attack the offender. The bot moved, but fortunately, Ivo hit home and was able to use the bounce to return to the platform.

The injured bot attempted to recover, but crashed down on the platform, mostly in one piece. The remaining three bombers backed off, widening the distance.

They were soon beyond the doctor's maximum jump range, they opened fire again. Ivo ducked, presenting a small a target as possible. He needed a way to hit back from this distance, or the tower would disintegrate from the fire.

The downed bot to his right caught his attention. Still mostly in one piece, its main cannon was still intact. He rolled towards it, evading fire and arriving beside it.

One advantage of the buzzbomber's range was that their accuracy was hampered by it. They probably had the capacity to adapt to it, though, given enough time.

He checked the power of the chassis. The animal inside had escaped, but there was still a power residue in the stinger cannon.

Hefting the heavy bot, he powered up the power matrices and fired. The first shot wizzed through the air and missed a buzzbomber by a few inches. The bot didn't react, however, and kept firing.

Ivo shifted his aim, but then took a buzzbomber shot to the chest. The doctor was thrown backwards, several rings exploding from the point of impact. The buzzbomber slipped from his grasp.

He was dazed for a handful of seconds, only able to hear a faint ringing and heavy pings as buzzbomber shots focused in.

The overwhelming urge to sleep was beginning to overtake the doctor, but he lunged towards the discarded buzzbomber and picked it up again.

He hefted this one over a knee for better accuracy, and lay his head down against bulbous barrel of the cannon to line up the shots. (Actually quite a feat considering his dimensions)

He reignited the matrices and opened fire. This newer shot hit home, smashing into the midsection of a buzzbomber. The bot seperated in midair, the cannon falling to earth, and it's forward section jetting off as it became extremely unbalanced.

Ivo had no time to watch, as he target the next bot. This shot hit its right engine, sending into a slow, uncontrolled fall.

One bot to go. Ivo missed the first shot, but the buzzbomber didn't care. It may have care a bit about the second shot, which blew apart its stinger cannon. It went straight up due to the imbalance.

Ivo spared a second to wave it farewell. Then he immediately turned into his next task. He had to attach the buzzbomber engines to his legs.

Scouting around the capsule in more detail, he spotted a set of maintenance tools, which came in very handy. Within twenty minutes. The doctor was ready.

He launched off the tower and ignited the engines. They succeeded in slowing his fall. He took the time to stare across the cityscape below as he fell. Another spire rose in the distance, twinkling slightly as the sun rose.

Orange light filled the sky as Ivo drifted high above. His destination lay directly ahead, a large factory belching smoke into the air.

A gap in the buildings revealed the entrance, no more guarded than the spire behind him had been. Interesting.

Two grounders were on guard duty, and didn't even notice the doctor come in until he landed and advanced towards them.

"State your purpose!" One called as he approached.

The shadows from the nearby buildings had evidently rendered him unrecognizable. He continued his approach.

One bot advanced towards the doctor.

"Tell your master that the doctor does house calls."


	7. Chapter 7

**Well, I finally got that Friday update I always wanted, eh?**

 **So, anyway, thanks to karygarcia21 for their review, so… anyway… R &R plz guys.**

Factories above, Ruins below

* * *

The first grounder was thrown backwards by a kick from Ivo. It hit the wall and shattered. A frightened pig squealed and took flight as the second bot attacked.

The scientist launched into the air and came down on the grounder like a tonne of bricks. The bot was crushed and charge released.

Ivo spared a quick look back and grinned briefly, satisfied at his entrance. He then entered Sonic's last defence.

* * *

"No No No!" The hedgehog roared. "You did no just enter MY factory!"

Rapidly walked several circles, thinking of what he could do about the doctor's incursion. His hover vehicle would be repaired, but that would take too long. That lump of scrap wouldn't be of any use against the doctor grounded.

Lump of scrap... That gave Sonic an idea. He checked the newly completed garbage compactor. Completely unescapable and no where to hide from the crushers. That would be the perfect trap. No time to waste.

If he redirected the path, the doctor would eventually enter the underground ruins that had been selected to be landfill location for Sonic's trash. Eventually, he would come up into the trash chamber. And from there, he could be trapped in the crusher...

"All bots!" The speedster ordered. "Seal all entrances to the trash compactor coming from the building chambers, except for the ruin hole! Then defend that hole!"

* * *

Ivo was surprised by the sheer amount of resistance in this factory. Presently, he was being pursued by a pair of buzzbombers. He was atop a conveyor belt that provided materials to Sonic's builder bots. The bombers were pursuing him full on, without firing, for fear of damaging any other contraptions or bots.

Ahead, the doctor could see a motobug armada waiting for him at the end of the belt. He quickened his pace and leapt off the end, smashing head on atop the lead bot. He hit the ground again and kicked away a pair of motobugs using a wide kick, his mechanised legs proving an effective weapon in close quarters.

Another motobug ran straight through him, jaws out, hitting his waist, causing several rings to be lost in the protection of himself. He flipped over the bot and managed to recover his feet.

His eyes spotting something to his right, and picked up a decently sized I-beam. He spun around twice and released. The beam impaled one buzzbomber, which fell and detonated against a motobug.

An explosion lit up the factory. Ivo turned and kept running. He was following the bots positions, as they must have be guarding something important. Something else that Ivo had noticed was that the bots in this factory seemed to run on power transmitted directly to them instead of running on animals.

Which Ivo preferred. He could be much rougher on he bots without having to fear accidentally killing or injuring some of the animals.

A squad of five grounders intercepted him. Ivo, with no enemies close behind him, drop kicked the first grounder. The machine was ripping in half, it's upper half sailing through the air and being buried in the chassis of another grounder. An explosion detonated from that bot, taking out another two grounders.

The final bot paused, unsure of its actions. Ivo sprung up, and came down full force on the bot, driving straight through instead of bouncing off as usual. The doctor couldn't help but enjoy destroying these bots much more than the others.

Having fought so many of them at this stage had made him extremely tired of these bots, an being able to crush them without restraint was so much more fulfilling.

The doctor headed through the open doorway that the grounders had been guarding. Inside, a legion of builder bots were in the process of assembling a line of buzzbomber cannons.

The motobug squad, with a buzzbomber from earlier, came around a corner the doctor had come from. The scientist rapidly scanned the surrounding area for options. The panel for the door was the most immediate one, and seeing as these bots wouldn't fire within the factory...

Ivo waited until they were almost upon him, and then snapped the metal doors shut. Several loud bangs were heard, and a buzzbomber shaped dent appeared in the middle of the door.

The doctor stepped back to admire his work. A handful of motobugs had also created a huge dent in the lower section of the door.

Ivo turned and continued down towards whatever the bots were guarding, hopefully Sonic. He paused to smash the conveyor to his right in half, leaving the builder bots in confusion. They'd eventually would figure out how to overcome the obstacle, but for now their progress was slowed.

He walked past the bots and out of the room. The exit led to a walkway, or set of walkways hung at different heights, scattered at random angles around the top of the chamber.

Ivo peeked over the edge and surveyed the underground.

Down below, a large hole could be sighted, leading into an unknown underground. A decently-sized group of bots were scattered around the hole, obviously defending it.

Interesting... The doctor thought. I wonder what's down there.

He picked up his pace, sprinting across the bridge an into the opening at the far end. Inside was a large chamber with plenty of walkways that connected to multiple underground mining tunnels. Minerals were pumped to the surface in huge quantities, to be picked up and sent to smelters by other builder bots, and another line brought the molten metal to an apparent forge.

Ivo decided not to interrupt the chain. It wasn't worth it, seeing as none of the bots had any real offensive capabilities.

He walked down a slight slope that was set up evidently to allow builder-bots to easily ascend and descend between to two levels. Upon reaching the bottom, he scanned for an exit. It took him less than five seconds to spot an exit that opened out into the chamber he'd come from.

He navigated the streams of busy bots until he reached the doorway. Ahead lay a small army, all clustered around a huge hole into the abyss. He swallowed, scanned the area one last time, and charged in.

"Perfect." The blue villain grinned as the red speck slowly entered the chamber. "Take the bait, doctor... Take the bait..."

The red dot accelerated as the bots spotted him, and a pitched battle began. The hedgehog, safe from any danger in his lab of sorts, activated a few cameras to watch the battle.

The doctor smashed atop a motobug, using its brief resistance to gain a measure of height, high enough to kick a buzzbomber back across the room. The bug spun and smashed into a wall across the chamber hard enough to break it apart.

There were only a handful of bot remaining now, and Ivo was feeling confident now. He'd beaten hundreds of these bots prior, why should these be any different?

A leg out as the doctor spun drove a motobug backwards. Fragments dropped from the robot as it bounced across the ground. Then it skipped over the hole in the centre of the chamber and fell into the abyss.

The doctor heard a faint clatter as it hit the ground below. A buzzbomber shot narrowly avoided Ivo's moustache by an inch. The perpetrator didn't last very long, as soon he was rewarded by pair of feet from a jumping scientist smashing straight through its midsection.

Only three bots left, Ivo noted.

A grounder accelerated toward the doctor, but he leapt up and smashed it by coming down on its head. The shell collapsed as Ivo picked the next target. A pair of buzzbombers were all that remained.

They both fired, but Ivo evaded by jumping to the right. Using a mechanised leg's spring, he launched back across the chamber and landed a few feet from them.

Taking advantage of his momentum, he launched into the air and curled up somewhat as he gained height. This was a trick he'd perfected over the course of the journey, in which he jumped, curled up and drove his feet outwards, smashing the two bombers with a two leg split.

Both bombers hit the ground and detonated. The force of the kick drove the doctor backwards slightly. He landed unharmed.

Ivo stood up and searched his surroundings. No active bots nearby. The scientist gave a faint grin, satisfied. He slowly walked over to the edge of the hole. He glanced over the edge and examined the abyss.

He couldn't see anything except for the crushed chassis of a single bot. Faint sparks were emitted from the wreck. Judging from here, Ivo guessed the drop was about 30 meters. He frowned. The bots had guarded this place for a reason, and there had been no sign of Sonic anywhere else.

But all the same, the entrance seemed woefully flawed. Ivo examined the edges again, closer this time, and without his goggles in hope that he might see more below.

After a few seconds, he spotted what he was looking for.

"Perfect." He breathed, and began to head around the hole.

What he had spotted were a collection of vines connecting the hole to the underground. Ivo inspected them closely, they were about a meter down from the edge. He grunted, then reached a leg over. Slowly and carefully, he lowered his leg until he made contact with a vine.

Ivo gingerly applied pressure to test the vine. It seemed to hold up relatively easily. Satisfied, Ivo brought his other leg over and released his grip from the surface. He then began the slow process of climbing down the vines.

They were many of them tangled about in huge quantities, allowing him to find a foothold relatively easily. He made it down to the halfway point without injury.

Unfortunately, around that point, the vine snapped at the first quarter. The doctor swore briefly, and then landed feet first. His springs took the majority of the impact, saving him from a major injury, but all the same some pain did arc through his legs.

Ivo fell to a knee, hissing at the pain. After about thirty seconds, he felt ready to move, standing back to his feet. He scouwered the surrounding area for a secret path or hidden door on the walls. He spotted an area with a heavy amount of vines covering it.

He started walking across the chamber towards the vines. He noted the floor was slippy. He frowned and brushed a gloved hand across the marble below.

It was wet. The doctor inspected his wet gloves for a second, then proceeded to push his way through the vines. They were swept aside uneventfully. On the other side, it was somewhat brighter. Ivo could still see everything, even with his goggles on.

He took a step forward... And slip on the wet slope below. Ivo yelled in shock as gravity overtook him, and he was swept down the slope.

It was like a slide. A long, terrifying slide. He passed through another set of vines, which he took him out into a brighter second of the ruins.

The slide suddenly ended, throwing the doctor across the chamber and sending him against a wall at the end of the depositing corridor.

Ivo lay in heap by the wall, exhausted and sore. If he had ring energy left in him, it had to be minimal at this point. The doctor just wanted to keep lying by the wall. Exhaustion from the last day crept in, taking advantage of his status. He couldn't get up.

Not that he was incapable, he simply couldn't summon the energy. He lay almost completely still. He felt close though. So close to finishing Sonic. And after all he'd done, he was defeated by a slide.

He was unaccustomed to losing. He'd never given up when it was possible. Yet it felt so appealing, just falling asleep here...

No.

He licked his lips.

No.

Doctor Ivo Robitnik climbed to his feet again.

* * *

"Let's go, doc." Sonic grinned. "One final battle."

He walked through the chamber above the compactor. The builder bots had finished a quick modification that would allow him to quickly shift between desired crushers.

A short distance away, his hover vehicle was prepped for victory. He'd spent way to much time here. As soon as he was finished with the doctor, he'd be off.

Sonic knew this was endgame. There was no way for him to lose in this situation. The barrier shields were impregnable and the crushers designed to take heavy impacts.

The doctor would be finished by this. He checked the screen one last time.

The doctor had just reached the underground tunnels below the exit.

Perfect.

Sonic slid into the crusher and powered it up. A faint him filled the air.

* * *

The doctor reached the end of another damp cooridor in the ruins. However, at the end of this corridor, the doctor noted that there was a large overhead hole and no way up.

Ivo, however, found no difficulty in this, as he sprung up and then wallkicked to gain enough height to reach the ledge above.

In his opinion, a nice move, a definitely one had hadn't expected himself to learn how to do. Around him now was a set of springs. They led to a hole above. Light poured in from the top of the hole.

Ivo jumped into the springs and powered into the air. A twenty second trip, before he rose out of the pit an onto a wide corridor. He landed and surveyed his surroundings.

Behind him, a large hole dropped nearly infinitely, while walls enclosed all other paths.

Ivo, with a growing sense of finality, stepped toward the slightly elevated chamber ahead.


	8. Chapter 8

**Well, Happy holidays, ya'll. Uh… yeah… that's pretty much all that I have to say, so… enjoy this part.**

The Finale

* * *

Metal on metal. The doctor heard only that as he advanced. It was clear that Sonic wanted him to go one direction, and Ivo had no choice.

It was eerily silent. No faint hum of machinery. Nothing.

A handful of steps lay ahead, and Ivo ascended them in only two steps. Easy. The floor here was much more different than the one of the area before. It was a darker shade of grey, and the metal was more muted as the doctor walked over it.

He paused, now very uneasy. He still saw no signs of life in this chamber, though a series of vents seemed to empty out into this room.

Ivo took a step backwards now. Something was going to happen. He could almost sense it. Everything here just seemed so...

 _Wrong._

A collection of tones split the air. Ivo jumped and spun quickly in a circle, but to no avail; he still spotted nothing...

A pink force field erupted both behind and ahead of the doctor, sealing him in the chamber. The floor below him rumbled ominously, and then rose. Ivo lunged forward, off the ascending section of floor. He then immediately sprung backwards as fast as he could as a column from the floor rose into the air before him too.

"Why hello there!" The maniacal hedgehog laughed, as he appeared in the crusher before the doctor.

Ivo froze, surprised by the hedgehog's new contraption. In his confusion, Sonic pulled the crushers back into the floor.

Overhead, a pair of pulse cannons dropped from the ceiling and charged up. Ivo snapped back into reality and lunged backwards, dashing hard against the pink force field behind him. The scientist bounced off harmlessly, and the pulse cannons fired.

Ivo evaded as quickly as he could, and another pair of crushers suddenly fell from the ceiling. Sonic was sitting in the closest one, his grin stretched across his face.

The doctor narrowly evaded the crushers again, and then watched the hedgehog disappeared into the ceiling again.

The pulse cannons warmed and fired again with a blinding flash. Ivo raised his hand to cover his eyes, as even his googles seemed unable to block the majority of the light at the highest filter setting.

The doctor then sprinted forward to evade the shots from the cannons.

Everything was happening so quickly. Ivo was struggling to think up a plan and stay alive. Sonic's trap had worked, wether he'd intended to work in this way or not. He was successfully overwhelming the doctor. It was only a matter of time before the doctor was worn out and killed.

Perhaps Sonic would have won it he hadn't been sitting in the crushers. Perhaps if he hadn't been smiling so manically.

But doctor Ivo Robotnik was not about to be beaten someone who was merely a thief of the doctor's inventions.

As the crushers rose from the floor again, Ivo jumped up and collided with the crusher holding he hedgehog. He extended his legs into the glass surrounding the hedgehog in one powerful move.

The glass shattered and his feet met the internals of the crushers. Sonic yelped. Sparks exploded from the wounded machinery.

The doctor bounced back, rolled across the floor once, and rolled back to his feet.

The crushers descended back into the ground. But there was a new sense across the area. The crusher had been wounded.

Ivo now knew what he had to do. And he was more than prepared to do it.

Pulse cannons charged and fired again.

Evaded.

The crushers came down from the ceiling. Sonic was sitting in the second one, now watching with repressed anger.

Ivo grinned and attacked again. More sparks poured from the structure around them, and the shields enclosing either end of the structure winked off, albeit briefly.

And Ivo knew he was winning. Sonic was now angry, and desperate. The pulse cannons fired again. Ivo narrowly dodged this volley, even having one shot rip through his sleeve and graze the skin.

He swore, but he waited for the crushers to come at him again.

But Sonic had one last trick up his sleeve. He overrode the inhibitors and activated all the crushers at once.

Ivo watched, stunned for a second, as all the crushers moved, and then realised Sonic's last, desperate move.

But he had once chance now. His eyes darted across the crushers, searching for Sonic, who was sitting in the farthest crusher from him. Ivo jumped across an ascending crusher, and sprung.

He impacted hard, and his feet smashed deep into the crusher. Immediately, machinery alarmed; sparks exploded from the walls and circuits. The pulse cannons fell dead in their housings.

The rising crushers slid back into the ground, and the ones from above stuck where they were. Ivo pulled himself back out of the one he'd attacked, and noticed two things:

One, Sonic was gone,

Two, the shields guarding the entrance and exit had fallen.

He navigated through the exit. He immediately encountered a corner, which he rounded.

This led him to huge chamber, which revealed a short floor ahead, which fell into the darkness below. Ivo walked over and peeked the edge. He couldn't see the bottom of the pit below.

Ivo pondered it briefly, but he was interrupted by he sound of a pair of doors sliding open. He spun about on the foot to see Sonic, inside his hover vehicle, fall from the doors and hover behind Ivo.

"This ain't over, Doctor!" The Hedgehog yelled shrilly. "I'll be back!"

Ivo however, had had enough. As Sonic powered towards the cliff face, the doctor sprung upwards and launched his final attack.

"No, Sonic." Ivo replied as he executed his attack, "It is."

His feet drove deep into the vehicle. Smoke immediately ejected from the opening, and the vehicle began to spin and fall. Ivo managed to grab the edge of the corridor opening above, while Sonic and his vehicle fell into the darkness below.

Ivo turned back and watched. After around twenty seconds, there was a loud clang from below.

It was finished.

* * *

Sonic was beaten. Now it was time to undo his damage to South Island.

First things first, Ivo spent a little while searching for Sonic's control room. He had to fight his way through a handful of bots to get to it, but in the end he made it.

His first order was simple. Any bots in any inhabited areas were ordered to collapse.

Once he knew that was done, Ivo ordered and bots in dangerous areas such as the marble fields and in the city to collapse too, releasing their charges in much safer areas.

However, Ivo did keep the builder bots active, though he queued them to deconstruct the city and then fall apart. While he wanted to let the animals inside out as quickly as possible, he had to ensure that the factories and control panels were destroyed, for good.

And finally, he went home. Ivo came out of Sonic's base of operations and looked up to the sky. It was a few hours from midday when he came out, and the city was alive with activity. Builder bots could been seen all across the skyline in the process of taking down the mighty structures.

Ivo certainly had to hand it to the late hedgehog; he sure had vision, and the will to see it all through.

But Ivo was proud of himself, more than he'd ever been throughout his whole life, especially when he'd considered that his life was probably going to enter a downward trend after he set up shop at South Island.

Ivo started a jog, using his springs to increase his speed.

And he set off to leave the city that Sonic had built. He gradually made his way out, pausing a few times to watch Sonic's city come down. It was midday when he reached the border wall, and there was a large hole in the wall ahead.

This time, Ivo took the long way around. He didn't have to go through the marble fields this time, so it took him longer to get back.

He didn't mind. Even as he walked through the forest that was along the side of the fields, he could hear robots settling down and falling apart.

The woods were alive with animals scurrying about in the wake of the releases. It made him smile for a little while.

Eventually, though, he reached the green hills. Several robot remains littered the area. Animals scurried about the hills.

The place was alive with animal life. It was something to see. Ivo found himself stopping more often than not to watch the wildlife.

By the time he got home, the sky was red as the sun moved to set. Interestingly, though, he only house with lights on was his own.

Interesting, he thought, did I leave them on before I left?

But as he approached, he noticed that the door had been fixed. The others must have come back to his place after they'd been freed.

His thoughts were confirmed when he pushed open his door and spotted Charlie and Bessie peeking through a doorframe into the main hallway.

"He's back!" Charlie called.

Everyone Ivo knew from across the island ran out into the hallway.

"What happened?" Mrs. Allen asked.

"It's over." Ivo grunted. "They're finished. What are you doing here anyway?"

"Well, we went around after you freed us, but those bots were patrolling the area around our houses. But they seemed to be avoiding your place, so we all decide to camp here for a while. This morning, they all started falling apart, but we could see more in the distance, so we just stayed here in case it was a trick. Hope you don't mind."

Ivo smiled and waved it off. "It's fine. Yeah, I beat their leader this morning and told all the bots to self destruct. The ones you saw must have been the ones I told to go to safer areas before falling apart."

"Ah." Bessie nodded. "That makes sense."

A pause.

"So, It's over?"

Ivo nodded.

"And if they come back, I'll stop them again." He stated.

"Thank you."

They began to leave the house. Ivo watched on happily, satisfied with his adventure and that this whole mess was finished.

* * *

Sonic on the other hand, was far from happy, but not screaming and raging, either. The hover vehicle had cushioned him from most of the impact, leaving him mostly unharmed.

He wandered about the deeps of his factory, meeting a few of his bots and using voice override to stop the queue that they'd been ordered to do. Evidently the doctor hadn't realised Sonic would keep voice commands as the primary order form instead of the control panel. Admittedly a mistake, but one that turned out better for Sonic.

But, they'd already taken apart the control panel. All the bots would have to be manually reset if Sonic wanted to control them. This would involve running to every single bot to directly give them orders.

It wasn't worth the time, and the doctor would probably be back. And this time, Sonic probably couldn't beat him; at least, not without future planning.

But he had found something: his calculations. In the meantime, he had had an idea about the fabled chaos emeralds.

He may not have been a genius like the doctor, but Sonic was smart enough to figure out dimensions, and he a few thoughts for the emeralds locations.

He opened the tablet and reviewed the results. His eyes lit up as he read over what his instruments had picked up while they were active.

As he thought...

Sonic had a new plan. He couldn't do it here; it was too dangerous with the doctor here. He grinned. West Island however...

* * *

 **End of Act I**

 **Yeah, we'll have an act for every game, so we'll have around 3-4 acts in the entire story. Let's see where we go from here. R &R, plz...**

 **Oh yeah, thanks to everyone who did so in the last part.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Start of Act II**

 **Well, After a bjillion or so years, here we are. On to the second act. Here's where the story is going to seriously begin to diverge from original (If it hadn't already). R &R and enjoy!**

* * *

Enter two tail

* * *

A handful of small islands surrounded the large West Island. It was upon one of these islands that the forces of Sonic the hedgehog gathered.

The sun is just beginning to rise, and a large factory can be seen in the distance. In front of it, there stands lines upon lines of ready soldiers, the next generation of war-bots, ready to take their war to the larger island nearby.

There is a group of different, more individual troops at the head of this army, and before them stands their leader.

"Well, my friends!" A familiar blue hedgehog shouts to his small band of thugs. "It's time to do this."

Sonic raised a new remote control and activated his new robotic army. Dozens of bots rumbled to life around them.

"New orders!" Sonic yelled, drawing himself to full height. "Take West Island! Bring any civilians to my fortress. Crush any resistance."

Every bot gave a gesture of compliance. Sonic grinned and gave the order to move. As one, his new army began their attack, buzzbombers rising in perfect formation, motobugs accelerating in straight lines, and the newer security-bot designs drawing their blasters and marching off.

"What about us, boss?" One of the thugs asked.

Sonic frowned as he remembered that they were here. These guys were the continuous wrench in his plans. All too simpleton to be trusted with these bots, all these guys could do was intimidate.

"Return to the prison." He ordered. "When our bots start coming back, they'll have prisoners. It'll be your job to... Entertain... Our prisoners."

The group gave a series of gestures of confirmation, and headed back.

Satisfied, Sonic spun on his heel and sped down to the beaches. Without breaking stride, he raced across the water surface, holding his speed as he did so.

One of the many gifts his great speed afforded him, he chuckled as he made land again and accelerated through a short forest, until eventually coming to a halt near West Island's central city.

He watched the attack on the city from the hilltop. Buzzbombers rained down projectiles from above, and security bots forced their way into the city. Police and even some army forces attempted to stop them, but their bullets deflected off their shells.

Sonic grinned, satisfied that the upgrade had paid off. He turned to the suburbs of the city, from which he saw both humans and anthros being taken prisoner and prepared for transport back to the prison.

So perfect...

Sonic gave a little dance that he was sure that no one else could see, and then set off down the hillside towards the city.

He penetrated the suburbs with ease, as his bots had already secured the area, and headed inwards. The inner city was ablaze, as buzzbomber rounds melted through metal and set wood alight.

The hedgehog smelled ashes and heard crackles of fire, and even screams from those who had not been captured yet.

Exhilarated, Sonic burst into the inner city, following the destruction until he arrived at a holdup. Security bots were taking cover from a heavy army turret which was holding the street. Around ten or so sec-bot chassises were strewn about the street.

Debris from a collapsed building had formed a kind of overhead cover that protected the turret emplacement from overhead strikes.

Sonic scanned the area from cover and planned his attack. The firing angle was relatively small, so their were some areas further down the street out of their firing arc.

Perfect.

"Tactical advisement!" Sonic yelled to the bots.

The nearest three bots turned to acknowledge.

"Give me a grenade, and provide cover fire!"

"Yes, Sir." The nearest bot replied, and pulled one of its arsenal grenades out of its collect and offered it to him.

Sonic grabbed it and stood up.

"On my command, attack!" He yelled.

Bots stood ready.

"3... 2... 1..." He counted. "Now!"

The turret erupted to life, and three bots went down. Sonic pulled the pin on the grenade and held down the handle.

One second after the bots moved, Sonic sped off. By now six more bots were down, but Sonic speed across the firing arc without injury.

The operators must have figured the blue blur was some kind of weapon, that of which had just missed their position.

Sonic threw his grenade as he passed, the grenade turning into a glowing green ball, which flew neatly into the emplacement.

A few shouts came from the turret, and then a loud bang. The debris overhead collapsed into the emplacement, burying any survivors.

Sonic grinned manically again, finally back feeling his regular adrenaline rush of combat. He'd missed it when fighting the doctor.

Something about their first encounter had evidently persuaded Sonic that the scientist could match him and that going robotic would easily overpower the doctor.

Or, at least, Sonic had been surprised by the doctor a few times without any real weapon.

He shook his head. Not this time. This time, Sonic was sure he would win.

After all, he had a new weapon...

In the forests along the edge of West Island, a certain fox watched the attack. Miles Prower peered out of a collection of bushes, his eyes watching the buzzbomber formations attack from the air.

Miles was not your regular fox. The first thing you'd notice, was obviously his two tails. His orange fur was relatively poorly kept, matted and with plenty of dirt tangled into it.

Of course, Miles didn't really care about how he looked, as no one wanted him around anyway. He had once upon a time lived in the city on West Island, but the anthros there hadn't wanted him.

The whole bunch of them hated his two tails, his imperfection. The children jeered and threw stones at him, the parents shooed him away, and the police always took the side against him.

Miles didn't even know how old he was. He guessed around 7 to 9, but it didn't really matter. He had no parents anyway. He'd been living in the forest for several years now, occasionally journeying into the suburbs to scrounge up some food from the trash bins.

Human suburbs tended to be more forgiving towards the fox, so he generally preferred them. A few humans had even stood up for him against other anthros.

Miles was smarter than most; after all, he had to be to survive out here. He loved technology, even though he rarely got to use it. Somewhat ironic, that. Of course, most of the fox's potential was wasted out in the forests.

He often had to trust his more primitive side to survive out here.

A renewed bombardment hit the city, and a handful of buildings crumbled. Miles crawled out of the bushes and disappeared deeper into the forests. His tails twitched nervously as he journeyed.

The forest wasn't quite the same when Miles couldn't hear anything other than the battle in the city. The smell of ash from below was also beginning to settle in the forest, further obscuring Miles' senses.

Something caught Miles' eyes, and he immediately dove into a set of bushes nearby. He turned and peeked out of the bushes back to what he had seen.

It was some kind of soldier, with a round blue central body and a large blaster hefted in its arm. Miles watched with interest. It could have been some kind of power armor or a war droid.

Miles couldn't help but feel that he probably should get away from the soldiers, but a morbid curiousity held him there, watching the troops survey the area slowly.

"Life Form!" One of the troops called. "Halt!"

Miles realised they were on to him. Time to go. He pulled himself out of the bush and started out running, spinning his tails to provide him a boost in speed.

He began to overtake them in speed, and he finally let out a grin of satisfaction. Suddenly, a buzzbomber shot exploded into the ground directly ahead of him. Miles was thrown backwards and hit the dirt.

His ears rang. The fox slowly rolled over and looked up. His eyesight seemed to be tearing or something; he could see six bots approaching.

In perfect sync they all raised a short stubby pistol thing, and blue lightning erupted through Miles' body, knocking the fox unconscious.

Miles awoke alone in a small metal box. He was lying in the centre of the room. He rolled over and shook his head. He felt more rested and refreshed than he had in nearly a year.

He properly surveyed the room he was in. It was a small square room, probably about sixteen feet wide and nine tall. One side was occupied by a see-through light blue wall.

Miles stood up and pressed against the wall. He encountered resistance. It must have been some kind of force field. Miles tilted his head and tapped the field again with interest.

"It's no use." Someone nearby grunted. "The shield's too strong."

Miles peered through the field. It appeared he was in a prison cell, as dozens of other cells lined the walls up and down. Each was occupied.

Miles spotted a few familiar faces; two slightly older anthros he knew back from the city and a human he recognised among others.

"I wasn't aware this kind of tech even existed." Miles said somewhat conversely.

"Shut your mouth you little freak." One of the anthros, Gordon, an otter, snarled. "You're the only one who actually belongs here."

"Any why might that be?" A human asked.

Gordon spluttered, then regained his composure.

"He's a freak!"

"And why's that?"

"Can't you see those two tails? He's a stupid mutant!"

"Where I come from we celebrate each other's differences, not scorn them."

Gordon snorted in disgust and retreated into his cell.

"Thanks." Miles mouthed to the human who'd stood up for him.

The human shrugged it off.

There was a loud clang on the right, and a pair of bots advanced down the central corridor.

"All subjects. You are to be tested to see if you are of use to the master. Refer to the sheet that has been printed into your cell." The robots called. "You have fifteen minutes to present your answers."

A small flat opened and quickly spat out a single page into the cell. A pen was quickly followed. Miles examined the page. It was merely a collection of algebra sums. Most betters would probably put their money on Miles not being able to do the sums, but they would have lost their money. Miles both finished them, and did it under the time limit.

"Your time is up. Immediately insert your pages into the slot they came from." The robots called out. "Failure to do so in the next minute will result in punishment."

There was a flutter of pages and a clatter of feet as the prisoners hurried to stick their pages back. After a minute, the robots spoke again.

"Time is up. We will return in ten minutes to take those of use."

The bots departed, leaving the cells in silence. No one spoke. No one seemed to want to speak. Finally, the bots returned. A handful of cells were opened across the hallway, including Miles'. A security bot stepped inside the cell.

"Come with me." It ordered, hefting its rifle.

Miles obeyed, stepping out of the cell. Across the hallway, he spied a small handful of prisoners being taken out.

"Where are we going?" The fox asked.

"It is not of your concern." The bot replied, closing Miles' cell. "Forward."

It pushed Miles forward with the barrel of its rifle. The kitsune staggered, before recovering and continuing down the hallway.

He glanced into the cells around him as he passed. Most of the prisoners were pressed up against the barriers of the cells, watching with curiosity.

"Eyes forward." The security bot ordered.

Miles obeyed. Another bot was marching behind another prisoner ahead of them; it was like a long line of prisoners and bots moving through the building.

It was a short walk though, as quite soon after they were led into a large chamber with several sets of lab equipment propped upon workstations strewn about the room.

It was dark, but the bots forced their prisoners forward and remained at the door themselves. The prisoners grouped together unconsciously. The chamber remained cold and silent for a minute, until every light ignited at once.

Most of the prisoners held up their hands to shield their eyes from the sudden burst of light, including Miles.

"Well. Well. Well."

A new voice echoed throughout the chamber. The prisoners shifted nervously. Miles' tails arched back like they did when he sensed a fight was inevitable.

Something about the new voice screamed hostility. A blue anthro strode forward confidently, grinning confidently. Coming closer, Miles realised that the anthro was a hedgehog. The prisoners backed up slightly as he approached.

"So you're my smart bunch of prisoners, eh?" He muttered. "Don't look like much, to be fair."

He began to circle the group like a predator does.

"Don't smell very good either."

Miles frowned at the insult. Given the mucky state of his coat, it was quite clear the insult was aimed mostly at him.

"Anyway, down to buisness, eh? Ya wanna know why you're all here?"

He continued his circle. There was no answer, but a collective curiosity emanating from the group. Or at least, the blue hedgehog thought so.

"Well, it goes like this. I wanna conquer the world." He suddenly disappeared into a streak of blue that powered through the chamber and arrived beside the bots at the door. "And I got the firepower and manpower to do it."

He tapped the nearest bot.

"Now." He sped forward to the front of the group. "I have a plan for a new base: a space station. From there, no one will be able to reach me, and therefore stop me."

He stepped forward threateningly.

"And you are going to design my station. You see, these bots I have can build any design; but I need a design to begin with. You will give me a design."

Silence. And then...

"Fat chance." A human dressed in a lab coat replied.

"Really." The blue hedgehog asked conversely.

"The rest, I don't care what they do, but I will not do it. No bloody way."

"Alright." The hedgehog said, and then burst forward in a flash of blue.

There was a sudden, loud, snap. The man crumpled to the ground, neck broken. Miles swallowed, his throat becoming dry. The entire group stared at the perpetrator in shock.

The hedgehog dusted off his gloves, seemly uneffected by what he'd just done.

"Make no mistake, if you try to deceive me with these plans there will be consequences. I will know. And if anyone has any problems..." He turned and stared down the group. "They can join this guy."

He kicked the corpse for emphasis.

"Now..." He snarled. "Shall we begin?"

Ivo was enjoying his breakfast at South Island. It was a calm, clear morning over on South Island. He was eating outside his house, enjoying the view across the green hills.

Life was good. He took a sip of fresh orange juice and leaned back in the chair. He had lost some weight in the last few weeks, he figured, giving his chest a more of a proper shape, but all the same, his waist was still rounded as it had always been.

While Sonic may have been long gone now, Ivo had encountered some bots across the island that hadn't fallen apart. They were always a fun little thrill. Ivo had almost come to the point of rebuilding some bots to entertain himself with, but he knew it wasn't fair for anyone else to be hurt for the sake of his thrills.

He shook it of and set down his glass on the table in front of him. A faint breeze began to blow, and Ivo relaxed back in his chair.

Now, this was the life. He might have dozed of there and then, if his pocket hadn't started to vibrate. Or more accurately, his phone.

He drew the device and powered it up from sleep mode. A simple notification was waiting; A still active bot had made contact with his server.

With so few bots left, Ivo had to use methods like this to locate the remaining ones. Some bots had been out of range of the shutdown command, and so spent their time trying to reestablish a connection.

Ivo used these signals to locate the bots. He pulled up the app he'd designed to show him the origin of the signal. It was weaker than any he'd received before.

That meant it was far off. Given the size of South Island, he'd likely now have an excuse to go to the beach. But the tracker onscreen went offshore.

Ivo frowned. Could it be a buzzbomber? He wondered as the tracker continued to leave South Island in its dust. But how would it still be operating if it was stationed out there? It should have rusted by now.

And then the tracker landed smack-bang on West Island. Ivo sat up quickly. This was serious. A potentially hostile bot, or several bots, could be wondering about the highly populated island.

Ivo pushed back his chair, shoving the phone into his pocket. No time to waste; he needed to build a boat or airplane to get to West Island as fast as he could.

One week, two days later...

Sonic was not happy. Sure the invasion and occupation of West Island had gone better than he'd expected, and while there had been some minor counterattacks from GUN, things were very good.

But other issues annoyed the emperor, as he called himself, namely that his orbital station hadn't even begun construction yet. The group of the smartest eight had now become three. The rest had been removed from the project through either death or permanent solitary.

In order to ensure no one knew the layouts, every time someone was removed to be punished, he had the plans redone entirely.

When the final three were done, Sonic had plans to imprison them aboard the station. While he would have prefer to kill them outright, he knew they could come in handy later.

Sonic station, the name he had chosen, was hardly a menacing name, but it was better than anything the doctor would have come up with. Knowing what he knew, the fatman would probably have come up with some name like Death Egg or something along those lines.

Right now, Sonic was sitting in his office, waiting for the planners to escorted following his summons. He tapped his foot off the floor impatiently.

Finally, the door opened with a creak, admitting the three. A pair of bots followed and stepped aside to guard the door.

"Lights." Sonic snarled.

Overhead, several sets ignited to life, illuminating the room. The three slowly walked over and took their seats. They were all anthros, a squirrel Sonic called Tufts because of the thick tuft of hair coming out of his forehead, Tails, the two-tailed mutant fox, and finally Timmy, a hare whom Sonic had named because he preferred all his planners names to start with T.

"Now. Gentlemen." Sonic began with an intense stare, fixing each one with it in turn.

They each lowered their gaze in turn.

"We are extremely behind schedule. It has been one week... And two days since you started. Care to explain why?"

"This isn't simple robot we're creating here, sir." Tufts began.

"This is a huge independent space station. If we launch it, it will be the largest object ever launched into space." Tails continued hurriedly, "and by a very considerable margin."

"And it doesn't help that you keep asking us to completely redo the damn thing." Timmy muttered angrily.

"The security is a necessary precaution." Sonic quickly said, bypassing the point.

"We have some bits done, though." Tails added.

"Like what?" The emperor growled irritably.

"Well, we have the launch plan and the general booster plan down. We've also got a general internal structure laid out."

"And what even are those things?" Sonic asked, sure they were tying to oversell their achievements.

"Quite simple. The launch plan refers to how we'll take off. First, we'll launch on a clear day. We ignite around twenty heavy boosters. With luck, this takes the station up to twenty kilometers. Around there, we will eject the first stage and ignite stage two. We'll also start a gravity turn around there. Full power will last until a hundred and twenty kilometers," Tufts explained.

"Though we'll take any additional kilometers we get." Timmy added.

"I should have kept some of the girls around." Sonic grumbled. "At least they would have given me something else to look out during your nerd speech."

"And finally, the third stage puts us to a hundred and sixty kilometers, and into orbit. From there, we feed the core the chaos emeralds and we are good to go." Tufts finished.

"Now, Emperor," Tails seemed cautious about what he was about to say.

"What is it?" Sonic snarled.

Tails jumped back slightly, took and breath and then spoke.

"About the fuel required for this..."

"I could guess." Sonic said cautiously.

"It's extremely high. We don't know exactly what, but we can be assured it will be high."

"So..." Sonic queried further. "How much is on this island?"

"Ok." Tails paused, seeming to gather himself. "You see, Harry and I went looking in the company logs, and we found a huge gas field just onshore, with a huge amount offshore. More than enough to power our launch."

"That's good." Sonic said, then paused. "What's the catch?"

"The field untapped." Tufts exhaled. "The mining operations have been put on hold for the last year, due to concerns about an accident."

This was better than Sonic had expected; now he could build a much more efficient drilling operation, designed specifically for his bots.

And with the number of builder bots he had now, construction would be quick, and he was sure that there was a drill variant of the mining designs on record. The doctor had designed almost everything the hedgehog could ever hope to need.

"No matter;" Sonic said briefly, "We'll build our own. You two:"

He pointed two fingers at Tufts and Timmy.

"You keep working on my station. You have until the drilling station is ready, or else..."

The emperor let the threat hang.

"Now, you;" He turned to the fox. "You have a week to have the drill facility ready. We already have plans; all we need is a location. Can you do that."

Tails nodded quickly.

Sonic leaned back in his chair.

"Good. All of you, back to work!"


End file.
